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Standards & BlueBooks

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Centre for Electrotechnical Standards (CENELEC) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have formed a joint technical committee (JTC) to handle the DVB family of standards.

DVB specifications are usually standardized in ETSI.

ETSI Publication Types

  • TR –  Technical Report: typically a set of guidelines for the implementation of a more normative specification or standard. A TR is approved by the ETSI Technical Committee which proposes the document.
  • TS –  Technical Specification: a document which can contain normative text, i.e. mandatory text such as “shall”. A TS is approved by the ETSI Technical Committee which proposes the document, and as such might lack some of the weight associated with the publications below. A DVB TS is generally a stepping stone to a more stable document(s).
  • ES –  ETSI Specification: a document approved by the entire ETSI membership, not just the Technical Committee proposing it. It is a more stable document than either a TR or a TS.
  • EN –  European Standard: the highest ranking ETSI publication approved by the national standards organisations of Europe. An EN is a publication which can be and often is included in European and national legislation.

Visit the Groups page to learn more about how DVB specifications are created.

The majority of DVB specifications are published by ETSI, either as European Standards or Technical Specifications. DVB specifications approved by its Steering Board are usually published as BlueBooks before being standardized.

DVB BlueBooks

DVB BlueBooks are documents that have been approved for publication by the DVB Steering Board.

While several categories of document can be published as DVB BlueBooks, they are most often technical specifications that are in the process of being standardized. In the latter case, DVB has decided that there is value in the rapid publication of draft specifications as BlueBooks, pending their formal standardization.

  • AXXX – technical specifications
  • CXXX – commercial requirements
  • RXXX – recommendations
  • SXXX – reports from study missions

BlueBooks are subject to modification and a published ETSI standard takes precedence over its corresponding BlueBook.

All DVB BlueBooks and standards can be found in our Specification Library.