Open standards
An executive guide to the role of open standards in maximising the distribution of audiovisual media services.
The importance of open standards
Open standards are fundamental to media ecosystems. They are developed by consensus through transparent processes by industry stakeholders, ensuring compatibility across vendors while enabling innovation.
The use of open standards can:
- Enable broad compatibility across devices, applications, and networks.
- Encourage competitive innovation above a shared base.
- Support flexible integration with other systems and future technologies.
- Simplify regulatory compliance through transparent, published specifications.
- Avoid proprietary constraints that may limit adaptability or market adoption.
DVB standards like DVB-S, DVB-C, and DVB-T have been widely used around the world to deliver television services over traditional satellite, cable, and terrestrial transmissions.
Some regions have historically developed different systems, so there are no globally adopted universal standards for television distribution and there is no sign of that changing. However, open standards have been essential in a broadcast system to allow devices and displays from different manufacturers to work with broadcast signals across regional markets.
DVB-DASH is a profile of the open DASH standard that is commonly used to deliver online video. The DASH standard has emerged through a concerted industry effort to create a worldwide standard for streaming media delivery. DASH is widely used by broadcasters and global platforms like YouTube and Netflix, although other proprietary standards are also in use, such as HLS developed by Apple.
DVB-I is an open standard developed by the DVB project to support the online delivery of service information and programme metadata to enable service discovery. It is also built in open standards, like HTTP and XML, that are fundamental web standards.
It possible to deliver such service information and programme metadata in a variety of ways, and many platforms have their own proprietary approaches. For instance, they may use web standards but use private data formats. Without an intention to support open service discovery, there is no imperative to adopt open standards. However, this limits interoperability, leads to market fragmentation, and inhibits discovery.
The goal of DVB-I and the Service List Registry is to promote common standards to enable service discovery for any media provider across different devices, displays, and applications, irrespective of manufacturer.
It is a bold ambition, but if television and video are to succeed in the internet world, they need to adopt the approaches that have ultimately been successful online.
For television and video services, open standards offer a future-proof foundation. They support consistent media delivery and service discovery to provide broad compatibility, regardless of network, geography, or manufacturer. This is vital in a fast-changing market where consumer expectations and technology cycles move rapidly.
Media providers and manufacturers or devices and displays can then innovate and differentiate where they can add value, knowing that there is a wide market in which they can compete.
By building on open standards, platform operators can ensure long-term sustainability and avoid being locked into proprietary silos that may limit innovation or adaptability.
What are the characteristics of open standards?
Open standards are defined not just by technical specifications, but by the way they are created and maintained. They are:
- Published and accessible specifications openly available for review and implementation.
- Freely adoptable with no discriminatory restrictions on use, even in commercial products.
- Developed collaboratively through transparent processes with broad industry input.
- Maintained independently by neutral bodies and not controlled by a single vendor.
- Supported across ecosystems with tools, test suites, and implementations from multiple sources.
What are the risks of relying on proprietary systems?
Relying on proprietary service discovery or platform technology may offer short-term gains but introduces long-term risk:
- Dependency on a single supplier for maintenance or development
- Opaque pricing or licensing through lack of competition
- Inflexibility in adapting to regulatory or market changes
- Incompatibility with other systems.
In contrast, open systems evolve through consensus and are designed to interoperate from the start. This makes them more resilient, more scalable, and better suited to the needs of public service and commercial media alike.
How do open standards reduce vendor lock-in?
Vendor lock-in occurs when a platform becomes dependent on the proprietary technology of a single supplier. This can lead to rising costs, limited flexibility, and barriers to innovation. Open standards reduce this risk by:
- Encouraging a competitive marketplace of interoperable products.
- Allowing independent upgrades or component replacements.
- Supporting modular deployments, where different parts of the system can evolve independently.
For manufacturers and media providers alike, open standards provide a safeguard against strategic and technical dead-ends. They help ensure that critical infrastructure decisions do not limit future options.
The use of well specified and documented open standards has another benefit. Systems defined and built on clear specifications can be developed separately. In contrast, proprietary client-server systems may difficult to upgrade or replace.
How do open standards encourage economies of scale?
Open standards reduce duplication and allow the same core technologies to be implemented across a wide range of products and platforms. This creates substantial economies of scale.
For consumer electronics manufacturers, shared standards mean that a single software stack can support multiple markets and regions, reducing engineering and support costs.
For media providers, open standards enable a single service to be delivered across multiple platforms and devices, reducing the need for bespoke solutions. This allows them to focus on content and user experience rather than technical integration.
For application developers, open standards allow reusable codebases and access to robust, community-supported libraries. Developers can draw on existing open-source implementations, shared developer knowledge, and widely available documentation, accelerating time to market and lowering cost of development.
For the broader vendor ecosystem, from middleware providers to testing labs, the use of open standards creates a consistent environment for integration, validation, and certification, enabling competition on quality, support, and innovation rather than bespoke integration work.
This network effect strengthens the entire media ecosystem by ensuring that investment in compliant solutions delivers value across multiple use cases and deployments.
Why are open standards important for service discovery?
At the heart of any media and entertainment experience is the ability to discover and present services. As delivery mechanisms evolve, from broadcast to broadband, from scheduled to on-demand, the way services are discovered becomes more important.
Service discovery determines what programming is available, how it is organised, and what metadata is presented to the user. A robust, open, and extensible discovery framework allows platforms to:
- Adapt distribution to new modes of delivery.
- Support variation of services by region, language, or device capabilities.
- Comply with regulatory requirements, including prominence.
- Enable intuitive navigation in a complex media landscape.
How does the Service List Registry support future interoperability?
The Service List Registry is a neutral, standards-based component that enables devices to discover compatible service lists based on location, capabilities, and user context. The SLR supports:
- Open discovery using the DVB-I specification.
- Dynamic adaptation to local and device-specific conditions.
- Multi-stakeholder access, ensuring providers, regulators, and manufacturers can all participate.
- Coexistence of multiple lists, supporting consumer choice and regulatory goals.
By adopting the SLR as part of their platform strategy, organisations can ensure their services are discoverable in a consistent, standards-based way, across broadcast and online networks.
Conclusion
Open standards are essential for building television platforms that are resilient, adaptable, and future-ready. By embracing technologies like DVB-I and platforms such as the Service List Registry, media stakeholders can avoid the pitfalls of proprietary lock-in and instead foster an open, interoperable media ecosystem.
Whether you are planning a national platform, launching a new service, or rethinking your infrastructure strategy, open standards provide a clear path to sustainable innovation.