DVB consortium moves to bring linear TV into the internet age

The Digital Video Broadcasting consortium has approved a new specification called DVB-I that is designed to improve the delivery of linear TV over the internet.

Traditional linear broadcast TV was created decades before the internet was invented and thus lacks a lot of the features of video content created with the internet in mind. This new specification seems to be an attempt to compensate for that by adding things like metadata, to make linear content searchable, and help with things like aggregation and multi-screen consumption.

“In developing an internet-centric solution for linear television services, we are providing the industry with a crucial missing piece that raises internet-based delivery to the same level in the DVB ecosystem as RF-based content delivery,” said DVB Chair Peter MacAvock. “With these building blocks, addressing the discovery of DVB-I services and the delivery of programme metadata, DVB offers broadcasters and operators an exciting new deployment option.”

“The DVB-I specification defines DVB-I Service Lists, a means for internet-connected devices to find curated sets of linear television services that may be delivered through broadband or broadcast mechanisms,” said the announcement. “It also defines the methods to retrieve electronic programme data for those services, which can be integrated into a single coherent offering that is accessed through a consistent user interface.”

The new tech is expected to be demonstrated at DVB World 2020 next March. Traditional broadcasters have been playing a constant game of catch-up since the likes of Netflix and YouTube redefined how we access video content. They seem to be finally doing a decent job of aggregating their archive services and this development should help them further to remain relevant in the internet era.