IPTV Rights Metadata—Who Sets The Standard?

The multi-platform IPTV world we live in makes for some great digital experiences, but is anyone making sure all platforms can communicate the proper metadata for legal sharing of material?

Because without a standard, IPTV is a “law-free” free-for-all of rights usage. And tracking it internationally in such a multi-platform Babylon? Good luck with all that. Which begs the question, “Who’s in charge of this situation and what are they doing about it?”

The good news is that the IEC and the ITU are in charge. (That’s the International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Telecommunication Union to me and you. And, you can check out IEC 62698 to drill even deeper into the standards.)

These two assessment and conformity-oriented organizations joined together to create a new international metadata standard that would facilitate the uniform communication and designation of rights information for IPTV.

Here are a few things that made it all happen.

The power of cross-discipline cooperation.
As you might imagine, agreement on this far-reaching and multi-platform standard didn’t happen overnight or by accident.

Back in 2008—in Brazil—discussions began that culminated in the two groups banding together for the  task of creating this mutually desirable threshold.

The goal of “metadata for rights information interoperability in IPTV services” aligned the IEC’s Technical Committee covering audio, video, and multimedia systems & equipment with the ITU’s Study Group addressing multimedia coding, systems, and applications. And that’s a powerful combination of acumen.

Addressing the consumer experience.
One element of consideration for the metadata standard involved not just the financial and legal concerns of rights reporting, but also a tip of the cap to the consumer’s experience.

The groups combined their expertise with the eventual goal of creating a metadata standard that would allow cross-platform interoperability—but recognized that the international solution of multimedia sharing rights would also benefit the consumer in terms of creating better access to digital content.

In other words, a metadata standard operating via IPTV across many platforms means a cleaner universal access to content via those differing platforms. And, quite rightfully, the two groups recognized that better access to desired content equals an improved consumer experience.

Also, content providers are likely to allow more content to be distributed with the protection of accurate rights metadata and reporting to ensure that they realize the full potential of their digital assets.

Increased mobility means increased platforms, devices, and technologies.
Because consumers are heavily trending toward more mobile communications—and ways to partake of digital content—the need for flexibility in platforms but standardization of content producers' rights was a core requirement of the metadata standardization.

Let’s face it. Mobility isn’t going away any time soon, so a metadata standard that can both protect the rights of rights holders while allowing technology to flourish is paramount to this international benchmark.

Interoperability was the focal point.
Setting metadata standards is always a good thing. Standardization of data records keeps everyone on the same page. And, standards allow for analysis of like procedures in data processing and even data entry.

But, in this case, the need for all the platforms and devices to use the same metadata standard shaped the initiative.

The threshold for interoperability the IEC and ITU set was for an ease of exchange with rights information across currently existing content management systems.  

This way, as digital information is increasingly shared via IPTV, an expanding number of outlets will all use the same metadata standard for rights in the exponentially growing and less regulated world of IPTV.

It just so happens that FYI has metadata standards, too. For any and all domestic US programming. Not to mention Rights Reporting and Data Analytics expertise that’s interoperable with your next effort. 

Just click below and we’ll tell you all about the standards of “beyond expectations” performance you can expect with FYI.