Service List Registry ready to help DVB-I broadcasters break out of the app
Freely, the UK free-to-air platform, is a good example of how broadcasters are making streaming linear channels available outside the broadcaster VOD (BVOD) app, with the user experience centred around an electronic programme guide (EPG) that can host broadcast or streamed linear channels together.
Elsewhere in Europe, several broadcasters are looking for a similar outcome — the ability to present linear streamed channels in a broadcaster-friendly and probably regulated EPG environment — so that users do not have to go in and out of BVOD apps. An alternative technical approach is being pursued there, based on DVB-I.
DVB-I is a service discovery and programming metadata standard that can be used to create a similar linear streamed programme guide experience to that of Freely. Italy’s Mediaset, Spain’s RTVE, Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ, as well as ARD and RTL in Germany, are among those that have participated in DVB-I proof-of-concepts and pilots as the market edges towards the first commercial deployment.
Freely takes a measure of control over the TV sets where the service is made available and specifies the look and feel of the user experience (UX), using the HbbTV OpApp model. DVB-I leaves TV manufacturers to determine what the EPG looks like, but the channels contained, and the order they appear in, would be pre-determined.
One of the building blocks for DVB-I is the service list, where available TV channels are “shown” to devices along with their possible delivery methods (as channels can be broadcast or streamed, depending on device capabilities, broadcast signal coverage, user choice and channel owner distribution decisions). Service lists are part of the organising structure that could eventually provide access to thousands of channels.
DVB-I is a technical standard so can be harnessed by any media owner (subject to regulatory conditions imposed in each market) to provide a streamed (or broadcast) channel into a classic EPG experience complete with up/down channel zapping.
The implementation of DVB-I in each market (decided by local stakeholders) will determine how many service lists are available and who appears within them. There could be “competing” lists or a single, central service list.
Local decisions will decide if the service lists are a regulated environment or not — although broadcasters will likely expect this for any list where they appear.
Organising DVB-I services
One company pitching to manage the organisation of services that will go into DVB-I-enabled EPGs is Service List Registry, which provides an online managed platform, or directory, based on the standard.
Service List Registry enables broadcasters (and other channel owners) to publish lists of services and their associated technical information. Any receive device downloads and presents the lists of linear channels (and on-demand services) that are available based on device location, capabilities and network connections. This solution works with any device, from connected TV to mobile.
In a DVB-I TV set environment with streaming, Service List Registry takes over the role that broadcast transmissions have traditionally performed by providing the service information metadata that enables channels (or on-demand services) to announce themselves to a device and be discovered.
According to William Cooper, co-founder and CEO of Service List Registry, in the broadcast world a new TV will scan for channels via the aerial or satellite connection. With Service List Registry, the TV is referred to a URL, where it states its location and the types of signals it can receive (eg. terrestrial, satellite or streaming) before being directed to the services available to it.
“We provide the metadata in a standardised form — it is based upon open standards and nobody has to license it,” he adds.
Each channel within a service list is effectively a URL that is also matched against a broadcast signal version of the channel, if there is one. For streaming, the URL directs the device to the broadcaster (or other media owner) streaming service. Service List Registry is aware of device location down to town level, so it allows for local channel discovery.
A service list could include radio channels and apps too.
Service List Registry handles the addition and removal of channels (or other audiovisual services) from lists, with the device referencing a malleable service list whenever it looks for content. Cooper points out that thousands of channels could be listed in Europe and that is bound to result in a constant state of churn.
For the device maker, Service List Registry does not dictate how the service information is presented, allowing them to differentiate their product based on their own UX designs (including the look and feel of an EPG). Content could be presented in a carousel or rows; the EPG is not the only presentation option.
This solution does not provide information about individual programmes, but that need is met elsewhere within the DVB-I specification and its support for EPGs.
Service List Registry would not have any role in the delivery of the content itself and would not be involved in entitlements, subscription or payment systems for paid channels. It does not track viewer selections or media consumption.
Administering service lists
Various stakeholders can create and then administer their own service list, including media owners, device makers and regulators. This is achieved through a browser-based admin console.
“Managing a list is as easy as using online banking or Amazon shopping,” says Cooper.
A regulator could generate a list of regulated media owners — and one quick-start scheme would be to open this to companies that are already regulated for broadcast services.
In late 2023, Service List Registry proposed that its service list directory model could help UK regulators extend their control to EPGs not currently covered by regulation (ie. beyond Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and YouView). This was in response to concerns that broadcasters could lose visibility on connected TV platforms at a time when streaming consumption was growing.
The approach proposed was a regulated service list of national, regional and local audiovisual media services. This would leave only one list to regulate, in effect, with all EPGs then accessing the regulated service list and, by default, meeting regulatory requirements.
Within a DVB-I setting, if regulators have prominence rules (to protect public-service media), whether for national or regional services, the necessary ordering would be built into the service list.
Service List Registry was established as an independent organisation to provide a globally scalable implementation of the DVB-I specification. “This is not a piece of software but an operational platform and the key to making this work is managing that platform,” Cooper explains.
The managed platform uses distributed global cloud infrastructure (with Amazon Web Services). Service List Registry says it will scale to a huge number of client devices with high availability to support heavy concurrent usage with low latency.
The platform must also provide solid security for metadata in an online setting to avoid unauthorised tampering. That security comes naturally to service information contained in broadcast signals because of the physical difficulty accessing broadcast spectrum.
Service List Registry created its own proof-of-concept and presented this to the DVB-I community at the DVB World annual conference last year.
Large responsibility
DVB-I could become a major new approach to digital distribution for broadcasters and possibly other streaming channel providers.
If it does, any organisation managing the service list registry will have a large responsibility for the smooth running of services — so it is fair to question whether the broadcast community would be comfortable giving that to a small company.
However, Service List Registry already runs a registry platform for use with TV services after the HbbTV Association chose it to establish and operate the root domain service that enables discovery of HbbTV applications without the need for a broadcast signal.
HbbTV is the open specification that provides a TV application execution environment based on web standards. It allows viewers to launch interactive or on-demand experiences when watching a linear channel, among other things.
Service List Registry provides a mechanism whereby media owners register a unique identifying code that is sent to HbbTV-compatible TV sets, which then go to an online address to load an HbbTV application on the TV.
Regardless of this proof point, Cooper acknowledges that at some stage Service List Registry may need to align itself with partners to provide additional credibility for the DVB-I market, even though technically the role can be performed with a small number of people.
“We are the single, exclusive global provider for HbbTV over broadband,” he reiterates. “HbbTV had those concerns about our credibility, but we demonstrated that we can handle the task with our service-level agreements.
“At some stage in DVB-I implementations [if local market stakeholders selected Service List Registry], we can involve partners to provide confidence that someone bigger stands behind this.
“We recognise that challenge, but we are trying to get as far as we can without the complications those relationships bring. This is a long-term development — probably a 10-year programme — and we are on the nursery slopes.”
Use cases for DVB-I
DVB-I has many potential uses. Like Freely, it could be used to ease linear-centric consumers into the streaming age as they lose broadcast signals due to changed home set-ups or even broadcast spectrum switch-offs.
Peter MacAvock, the former DVB project chair, outlined a compelling argument for DVB-I in the organisation’s in-house journal in September 2024. He stated: “Today, all broadcasters are obliged to invest heavily in their own apps, but only a few will turn themselves into top 10 destinations.”
For him, DVB-I allows broadcasters to rethink their high-level distribution strategy.
Cooper believes the simple connection between viewers and broadcasters, without the need for consumers to have a relationship or log-in with a device manufacturer or indeed the broadcaster itself, is being lost.
“Nobody asked for that,” he suggests, while arguing that the DVB-I-enabled service list model (and its support for linear streaming within programme guides) brings simplicity back to the user experience.
Cooper is sceptical that BVOD apps can grow digital market share for broadcasters fast enough to keep eyeballs away from global streaming rivals. He believes the app UX is part of the problem, putting broadcaster domains into competition with each other where before, in EPGs, each broadcaster benefited from the traffic that others generated.
He agrees with MacAvock that few broadcasters are strong enough to gain attention over streaming giants like Netflix as a standalone app, so should avoid competing on this basis. “Linear is where broadcasters can differentiate themselves,” he declares. “They should collaborate to create a combined experience [for the streaming world].
“We think traditional channels and networks will be relevant for many years, so the question is how they are delivered.”
Breaking out of the app
Cooper wants his company to help broadcasters break out of the app for their digital distribution.
Like Freely, DVB-I-supported programme guides could give broadcasters, and especially smaller ones, security of carriage on connected TV platforms (like smart TVs), where otherwise they might have to regularly renegotiate their app position (and thus prominence) within the TV menu.
As with Freely, each channel slot (logical channel number) a broadcaster is allocated in a DVB-I environment will remain theirs. Within that slot, the channel can be offered as a terrestrial or satellite broadcast or as a stream. The streamed version of a channel does not have to find itself a different programme guide slot (and channel number) to the broadcast version.
Matthew Huntington, who joined Service List Registry last summer as an advisory board member, claimed at the time that “as viewing moves online, we urgently need a new way for broadcasters and other media providers to reach viewers in an open competitive market”.
He continued: “Through the use of open standards like DVB-I and HbbTV, the Service List Registry has a major role to play in facilitating the distribution and discovery of media services over any network to any screen.”