Standards (Associated with Technical Standard, International Standard, TV Standard, Open Standard.) Standards enable interaction and communication among an industry's technical components. Compatible standards and specifications can greatly aid in the proliferation of a technology. Incompatible standards and platforms have been a major obstacle to interactive TV adoption. (Note the term "platforms" is often used interchangeably with the terms "standards" and "specifications".)

Listed below are a number of current and past Interactive TV related standards, specifications and/or those providing them. Many don't have direct involvement with interactive television but could be related in some way. (Also see middleware, platforms, architecture and applications.)

ACAP (Advanced Common Application Platform for Interactive Television) - Formally known as DCAP.

Adobe Flash

Advanced Advertising 1.0 - Canoe Ventures and CableLabs reference architecture specification.

Advanced Audio Coding - (AAC) - An audio compression format.

ADTT - (Advanced Digital Television Technologies)

Advanced Satellite Advertising Platform (ASAP) - A fully measurable interactive advertising platform that gives national television advertisers reach to Dish Network and DirecTV's U.S. households. Article.

Advanced Television Enhancement Forum - (ATVEF) - The ATVEF was an early adopter of Interactive TV Specifications in the States.

ADSI

ADSL

AIT

AllVid - AllVid is an universal adapter for televisions and related components. AllVid is an IP gateway adapter used for searching broadcast and video content across incompatable DVRs, TVs  and other "smart video" devices.

Android - Google TV.

APEX Platform - The APEX platform supports standards-based video and high-speed data interfaces.

ARIB (Japan)

ATIS

ATSC Mobile DTV Standard

ATSC Standards

Audiovisual Media Services Directive (The) - (The AVMS Directive) replaces the former Television Without Frontiers Directive.

BBC Future Media Standards & Guidlines

BHTML

BIFS (Binary Format for Scene)

BML (Broadcast Markup Language) (Japan)

Blu-ray BD-J Application Development using Java ME (formerly J2ME),  click here.

BOCR (Bidirectional OpenCable Receiver), is being billed as the follow-on to "OCUR," the OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver. OCUR-enabled PCs can support only one-way broadcast cable digital services.

BONDING Specification

Broadband - As long as interactive television in the United States and elsewhere is hampered by incompatible delivery systems and/or receivers, broadband standards compatibility have become an attractive interim solution.

Broadcast Compositing Library - (BroadcastCL)

DVB-C2 - the second-generation baseline transmission system for DTV broadcasting via cable networks.

CI+ Specification - A standard for enabling interactive applications in smart card modules and more.

CableCard 2.0

CableLabs® Certified™ Cable Modem Project - (Formerly known as "DOCSIS.") (DOCSIS 2.0 is the current generation standard/specification. DOCSIS 3.0 is the speedy next generation standard that incorporates channel bonding and IPv6.)

CableCARD™ Host Interface Licensing Agreement (CHILA)

Cable Applications Platform

Canvas - See Project Canvas.

CEA-2014

CE-HTML

Common Application Interface

DAB-IP

DASE (ATSC) - Established in 1983, The ATSC was set up to develop voluntary technical standards, including interactive television systems and digital high definition television (HDTV). http://www.atsc.org/standards/a100.html

DAVIC

DCAS™ - A network-agnostic solution for interactive two-way devices connected to cable systems. DCAS allowes cable operators to download conditional access system(s) of choice to devices connected to their cable network.

DCR Plus (Digital Cable Ready Plus) - At the time of this writing, the Consumer Electronics Association is supporting this competing interactive TV standard to Tru2way. The CEA looks at “DCR Plus” as an extension to CableCards. It could standardize access to cable services that require two-way communication, such as video on demand, switched digital video, on-screen program guides and pay per view. The CEA has stated that DCR Plus is a lightweight complement to OpenCable (Tru2way).

DDWG

Declarative Content Standard (DCS)

DHTML

Digital Video Interface - (DVI)

DLNA Streaming

DMB 2.0 (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting 2.0) - An interactive TV service based on mobile Internet networks. DMB 2.0 enables viewers to surf a number of data-based services such as stock updates, e-commerce, weather updates and digital video recordings (DVRs). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting

Doja - The DoJa profile is a Java environment specification for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doja

DSM-CC

DSS

DTCP-IP

DTV PSIP

DVB - Major European based consortium regarding the transmission of digital television. DVB systems distribute data using a variety of approaches, including by satellite: DVB-S, DVB-S2 and DVB-SH; also DVB-SMATV for distribution via SMATV; cable (DVB-C); terrestrial television (DVB-T) and terrestrial television for handhelds (DVB-H); also via microwave using DTT (DVB-MT), the MMDS (DVB-MC), and/or MVDS standards (DVB-MS). Also DVB-DATA, with return channels (DVB-RC) for several media (DECT, GSM, PSTN/ISDN, satellite etc.), protocols (DVB-IPI: Internet Protocol; DVB-NPI: network protocol independent), DVB-CA), (DVB-CSA), a physical Common Interface (DVB-CI) for accessing scrambled content and DVB-CPCM, a content protection and copy management system for received content. DVB also supports older technologies such as teletext (DVB-TXT) and vertical blanking interval data (DVB-VBI). (More advanced alternatives like DVB-SUB for sub-titling are available.)
www.dvb.org & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB

DVB EuroModem

DVB-HTML


DVB-RCCL

DVB-RCS

DVB-S2 is an improved and updated specification to replace the DVB-S standard, ratified by the ETSI in March, 2005. Today the main use for this new standard is the distribution of HDTV, while the original standard was mainly applied to SDTV services.

Digital Video Interactive - An early standard for full-motion desktop video, dating from the late 1980s.

EBIF I06 - An EBIF (Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format) specification. for interactive television.

ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is a not for profit organization whose mission is to produce the telecommunications standards that will be used for decades to come throughout Europe and beyond. www.etsi.org

ETV-BIF (Enhanced Television-Binary Interchange Format, ETV/EBIF) - (EBIF) - (Enhanced Television-Binary Interchange Format, EBIF, ETV) - EBIF, or Enhanced (TV) Binary Interchange Format, is a binary form of XML (extensible markup language). EBIF is part of CableLabs' ETV Standard. Until tru2way is fully implemented in the cable TV industry, EVT-BIF can be used to extend more basic but impressive interactive applications to the currently deployed (and less advanced) set-boxes. A number of interactive TV technology providers work with ETV-BIF (EBIF).

The EBIF content format is meant to represent an optimized collection of widget and specifications for the definition of multimedia type pages which appear similar to web pages. These "pages" are for use within an enhanced television or interactive television system.

Also see ETV Standard below.

ETV/EBIF - See ETV-BIF above. www.ebif.tv

ETV Standard - (CableLabs) - Go to www.cablelabs.org and in their search field type in "ETV Standard".

EuroDOCSIS

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

Extended Wireless PC Initiative - An inititative supported by Intel that aids in the distribution of digital media throughout the home.

FS-VDSL - Full-Service Very High-speed Digital Subscriber Line.

GINGA-J specification from Brazil's GINGA. (GINGA-J is the standard middleware of Brazilian Digital TV.)

Globally Executable MHP (GEM)

GlobalPlatform - GlobalPlatform provides a suite of smart card specifications.

Google TV (Dragonpoint) - This hardware/software specification helps users navigate among web-based offerings on television sets and serves as a platform for developers. This technology is also for use in blu-ray players and set-top boxes.  See video clip about Google TV.

Click for Google TV Related  Businesses.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is a very popular standard for mobile telephone systems.

HbbTV Specification (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV)

HDAVI - (Enables component interactivity)

HDMI - (High Definition Multimedia Interface) - HDMI is an uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface.

HITS® (Headend in the Sky)

Home Phoneline Networking (HomePNA)

HomePlug AV

HTML

HTML 5 - HTML 5 could become a standard for mobile and other networked devices. HTML 5 can present web site animation without using Flash. See Informitv.

ICAP

Infrared Data Association - (IrDA)

Infrared Data Association Specifications

IMPALA - The International MHEG Promotion Alliance.

Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting

Interactive TV Standards - the book - Download the eBook here.

Interactive TV Standards Survey

Interactive TV Web - Welcome to the Interactive TV Web, a web site dedicated to open standards for Interactive TV.

Internet-connected Televisions - Demo.

Internet Streaming Media Alliance

Interactive Services Architecture - (ISA)

J2ME CLDC - (Connected Limited Device Configuration)
 
Java TV

JavaScript (Interactive TV Related)

Macromedia Flash CDK for Interactive Television

Meta-Mirror

MHEG - (Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group)

MHEG-5 is an interactive software standard used for digital terrestrial television in the UK, with over 12 million compatible receivers deployed.

MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) - MHP is an open, multi-platform middleware specification developed for interactive digital television by the European-based DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) organization (MHP-DVB). The MHP specification is the basis for the OCAP (tru2way) specification which has been formally adopted by the American cable industry. MHP adoption however has been frustrated by bickering over technology and licensing.

MIDP - (Mobile Information Device Profile) - J2ME Platform -
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:J2ME

Mobile Phone and Data Standards

MAOSCO

Mobile DTV

MoCA

Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) - An inside-the-home, coaxial cable-based networking initiative.

MVB-MHP - (out-dated) www.mhp.org

NABTS

National Institute of Standards and Technology – (NIST)

Next Generation Interactive Multimedia, Applications and Services initiative - (Singapore) - Media Development Authority and the Infocomm Development Authority.

NexTView EPG standard

NorDig

NTSC
 
OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform, now rebranded as “Tru2way.”) - The US cable TV advanced Interactive Television standard.

OCUR (OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver) - This cable interface for Microsoft Vista-enabled personal computers will initially support one-way services (linear TV) while a two-way interactive interface is being developed.

OEDN - The OCAP/EBIF Developer Network.

OIPF (Open IPTV Forum)

OLE – (Object Linking and Embedding)

OpenHbb - A connected TV standard OpenWidget project.

Open IPTV Forum

Open Mobile Alliance

Open Screen Project - Lead by Adobe.

OPIMA (Open Platform Initiative for Multimedia Access)

OpenNI

Pantalk

PCF (Portable Content Format)

pJava - (PersonalJava) - A former version of Java from Sun intended for PDAs and other handheld devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PersonalJava & Spyglass PR.