The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced the first set of global standards for Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) today. The standards were built with technical contributions from leading service providers and manufacturers from the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and cement ITU’s role as the global leader in IPTV standards development.
The new standards were developed by the Focus Group on IPTV (FG IPTV) in ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). Contained within the documents produced by the Focus Group are the high-level architecture and frameworks needed by service providers in order to roll out IPTV services. ITU’s next phase of IPTV work — IPTV-GSI (global standards initiative) — will centre on the speedy preparation of standards based on documents produced by FG IPTV as well as on the detailed protocols required.