Dash in ATSC 3.0: bridging the gap between OTT and broadcast

Abstract

ATSC 3.0 is the next-generation broadcast television suite of around 20 standards including transmission, audio, video, captioning, metadata, watermarking, companion devices, security, and personalization. Among others, ATSC 3.0 uses MPEG DASH delivery format for broadcast and broadband delivery of media and data. In order to fulfil the use cases and requirements of ATSC 3.0 including broadcast-only, broadband and hybrid (broadcast/ broadband) delivery, as well as a multitude of new features, DASH-IF developed a DASH interoperability profile specifically designed for ATSC 3.0 standard. This profile supports broadcast and broadband delivery, codec signalling (audio, video, subtitle), interactivity & events, metadata, targeted & personalized ad insertion, and advanced security & content protection schemes. By the choice of DASH formats and HTML-5 based applications, ATSC 3.0 services are expected to be consumable not only on vertically integrated devices such as TV sets, but also on other types of devices such as PCs, tablets, game consoles and mobile phones. This paper will introduce the rationales, benefits and opportunities of such an approach and provide an overview of the ATSC 3.0 DASH profile.

Transitioning Broadcast to Cloud

“…Considering all such benefits and conveniences, many companies in the broadcast ecosystem are now increasingly adding OTT services, complementing their traditional (e.g., terrestrial, cable, satellite) services or distribution models [8][9][10][11]. At a broader scale, we must also recognize new standards and industry initiatives such as HbbTV [12], as well as ATSC 3.0 [13,14], which are further blurring the boundaries between traditional broadcast and OTT.…”