Broadcasters Agree To Standard For File Based Delivery

The Digital Production Partnership (DPP) has revealed its new technical and metadata standards for file-based programme delivery in the UK.
Seven major broadcasters in the UK – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5,Sky, S4C and UKTV – have agreed to the UK’s first common file format, structure and wrapper to enable TV programme delivery by file.
These new guidelines complement the common standards already published by the DPP for tape delivery of HD and SD TV programmes.
By implementing one set of pan-industry technical standards for the UK, the DPP aims to minimise confusion and expense for programme-makers, and avoid a situation where a number of different file types and specifications proliferate.
Meanwhile DPP standards aim to remove any ambiguity during the production and delivery process. A key aspect is the inclusion of editorial and technical metadata, which will ensure a consistent set of information for the processing, review, and scheduling of programmes, as well as their onward archiving, sale and distribution.
As part of the file-based guidelines, the DPP’s member broadcasters have agreed a minimum set of common metadata to be delivered with a file-based programme. And, in a bid to encourage international adoption of its metadata standards, the DPP has worked closely with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), mapping its minimum set of common metadata to existing ‘EBU-Core’ and ‘TV-Anytime’ metadata sets.
Alongside these new standards, the DPP is currently building a free-to-use, downloadable, metadata application to enable production companies to enter the required editorial and technical metadata easily. The new application is due to launch in spring 2012.
(LB)