Digital Media Project Seeks End to Proprietary Online Content
The Digital Media Project wants Internet content to be as interoperable as TV services, DMP founder Leonardo Chiariglione said in an interview. Unlike the largely universal TV services made possible by standards such as MPEG and MPEG-2, online offerings are mostly incompatible, even though the Internet runs on a single infrastructure standard, because online offerings are proprietary, he said. The Open Connected TV (OCTV) project aims to remedy that by creating a core system that lets users access online content as openly as they do via TV, while ensuring content owners get paid, he said.
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Many see “Connected TV” as a path to convergence between broadcast TV and various new forms of video delivery, said the initial draft core OCTV specification document issued March 26. The mostly proprietary systems of Connected TV are a major obstacle to the development of a new market for content, products, services and applications, it said. The OCTV specification is designed to support rich media streaming in applications such as interactive video on mobile networks, the draft said. The specification creates the conditions for development of a global market for video services through a technical specification based on international standards and an industry-grade platform, it said.
The goal is an open platform that gives rights owners confidence their material will be seen and paid for, Chiariglione said. Content will be wrapped in a package that can only be accessed with a key by those who pay for it, he said. Some rights holders may resist the idea, but the success of MP3, the most open specification of all, should reassure them, he said.
The draft doesn’t envision the development of a specific technical specification, Chiariglione said. The DMP wants to achieve the “antithesis of open source,” where software is created for everyone’s free use, he said. That works for applications such as the Linux operating system, but not for others, because some people don’t want their competitors taking advantage of their work, he said. OCTV will allow a software platform as robust as successful open source projects, but will be open only to participants who have helped develop code and ensure that it’s of high commercial quality, he said.
Now that the draft specification has been published, the DMP is farming out pieces of the initial architecture-creation project to various participants, Chiariglione said. Most are universities -- in Switzerland, Korea, the U.K., China and elsewhere, but not yet in the U.S. -- but there are also some small companies involved, he said. “We need people ready to work.”