Broadcast Content Delivery Evolution

Traditional broadcasting has always delivered content in a linear fashion according to schedules that may be planned months in advance. These schedules require the public to make appointments to view the content when it is broadcast. Consumer video recorders introduced in the 1970’s allowed viewers to time shift programs themselves. Hard disk based systems introduced in the 1990’s supported Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data feeds which could be used to ‘pre-schedule’ recordings or set up preference based program capture. 

This was all analog TV based. The shift to Digital TV services coincided with the introduction of Internet streamed content. This pushed the recording process back to the central server location. This allows more control over rights to view and was a route to increased monetization.

Where the industry is currently in the arc of change from traditional linear transmission towards full streaming is documented and discussed in detail within the books and articles in The Broadcast Bridge ‘DELIVERY’ content channel. 

Where The Standards Apply

Here is a typical broadcast system transmitting linear content. This might originate from an external source or as pre-recorded programs played out to the transmission system.

The architecture is quite different for a streaming Video-On-Demand (VOD) service. The playout & transmission are replaced by a request driven Content Delivery Network (CDN).

The applicable ingest standards are described in delivery specifications based on the individual broadcaster’s needs.

DVB Standards For On-Air Broadcasting

The Digital Video Broadcasting organization (DVB) manages a collection of international open-standards that describe how to transmit digital TV services on-air. DVB is a not-for-profit consortium sponsored by the broadcasters. Their standards are grouped into these categories:

The DVB standards have been the foundation for digital TV deployments worldwide and describe how TV signals can be transmitted in different ways:

The most familiar DVB standards describe how digital TV services are structured for transmission. The second-generation variants add high definition support:

Multiple program streams are packaged into a bundle. On DTT services, these are called Multiplexes and on DSat they are described as Transponders. The bundle also includes metadata for Service Information (SI) to populate EPGs.

DVB standards are delivered via the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). DVB develops the technical details and ETSI formalizes them into standards and then publishes them. They are all available free of charge.

These Appendix articles contain additional information you may find useful: