ITU Opens Up World for Interactive TV Providers
Standard encourages innovation in iTV

Geneva, 7 April 2003 — The International Telecommunication Union announces the approval of a new standard that allows content providers to roll out value-added interactive TV (iTV) services to any network without modification. iTV allows viewers of a football match for example, to display data on a player while a match is in progress. Previously, proprietary or country-specific standards forced content providers to develop different product versions for each market.

The standard means that content providers can develop interactive material for programmes that can then be distributed worldwide without extra labour or cost. It means the content will stay true to the author’s design in all markets — a key concern for advertisers. Content providers will also find that it removes barriers to entry and reduces risk, while helping to advance the functionality of iTV services. The need to drive iTV services is seen as particularly relevant to the US market where services have been slow to develop.

Dr Richard Green, CEO, CableLabs, and chairman ITU-T Study Group 9 — the standard’s parent body: "ITU is the only organization with the international scope necessary to bring these other standards makers — DVB, ARIB, ATSC, OCAP¹ — together. It will greatly reduce the need for re-authoring of iTV content and enable economies of scale to be achieved by the manufacturing industry."

A key feature for industry is the flexibility of the standard that allows operators to design individual content and easily tag-on interactive content to their programmes.

The standard (Recommendation ITU-T J.202) defines the interfaces that designers use to produce content (Application Programming Interfaces — API) and gives guidelines for their use. It has the backing of the broadcast industry as well as key manufacturers of TV equipment and set-top boxes. ITU-T J.202 consolidates the work of other standards makers illustrating ITU-T’s position as the pre-eminent body for coordination of Information Communication Technology (ICT) standards.

"Essentially we identified common ground and used this as a basis for harmonization of the standards", adds Dr Charles Sandbank, from UK Department of Trade and Industry, who chaired the group which drafted the standard.

 

1	DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses), ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee), OCAP (Open Cable Applications Platform)