New reports provide the first steps to coherence in Media Content Delivery

ETSI Headquarters, Sophia Antipolis, France – 23 March 2010

A series of new Technical Reports lays the foundation for standardization of Media Content Delivery (MCD) solutions that aim to enhance the deployment and profitability of multimedia offerings, and substantially improve the consumer experience. 

Today, multimedia content is delivered via a variety of means, including broadcast networks, the Internet, IPTV and mobile communications. The experience is seldom homogeneous and seamless for customers. Commercial solutions developed by different market players generally do not interoperate across technology platforms, bringing limitations and adding complexity that can increase costs and reduce market acceptance. 

The documents, which were published at the beginning of March by ETSI's Media Content Delivery Technical Committee (TC MCD), are the three first parts of ETSI Technical Report TR 102 688, the MCD Framework. Part 1 provides an overview of interest areas, Part 2 examines the views and needs of content providers and Part 3 addresses regulatory issues, social needs and policy matters.

The documents provide the main elements of a requirements identification phase, creating for the industry and standardizers greater clarity of the choices concerning media distribution and giving guidance for further work that ETSI expects to perform in close co-operation with other standards organizations. Subsequent phases in the committee's work will include proposing technical solutions for content delivery that enhance interoperability, improving co-ordination of activities between various standards development organizations, and specifying architectures, formats and protocols as necessary.

The worlds of broadcast and telecommunications traditionally have each followed their own standards tracks, based on different commercial requirements. Convergence of these worlds for content delivery results in a proliferation of technical options and specifications, resulting in a 'standards maze' and a lack of clear business models supported by an accepted technology. This does not serve business and customers' interests, as broadcasters, telecom operators and internet players are each offering what may be perceived as similar services by the consumer. Standardization that focuses on interoperability can help overcome these restrictions, offering greater flexibility for the industry and substantial improvements for the end user.

Franklin Selgert of KPN, Chair of ETSI's Media Content Delivery Technical Committee, remarked: 'Whilst digital media distribution is growing rapidly, a lack of a clear direction in standards has been hindering wide-scale commercial deployments and new business models. The goal of MCD is to aid the standards process, thus providing consumer choice, transparency and trust. Because digital media distribution no longer entails physical products (DVD etc) that customers can perceive and handle, consumer confidence is a prerequisite for wide scale adoption and success of commercial deployments of digital media.'

The Technical Reports can be downloaded free of charge from: http://pda.etsi.org/pda/queryform.asp

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About ETSI
ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and internet technologies and is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. ETSI is an independent, not-for-profit association whose 717 member companies and organizations, drawn from 62 countries across 5 continents worldwide, determine its work programme and participate directly in its work.
For more information please visit: http://www.etsi.org/ 

About ETSI's Media Content Distribution Technical Committee (TC MCD)
TC MCD is ETSI's technical committee in charge of guiding and co-ordinating standardization work aimed at a successful overall development of multimedia systems (television and communication) that responds to present and future market expectations for media content distribution.
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The ETSI logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members.