ATSC 3.0 : Standards

This document specifies information describing the availability of broadcast services over time within a broadcast region. Broadcast receivers may use this information to help construct a list of services that may be available to them. Additionally, the information provides a schedule that allows receivers to maintain an up-to-date service list. This document describes how the information may be distributed using either an ATSC 1.0 broadcast (or any MPEG-2 transport stream), ATSC 3.0 broadcast, or over broadband.

Download A/200:2020, “Regional Service Availability”, and accompanying schema, approved 8 July 2020.

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This Standard describes the ATSC 3.0 digital television system. ATSC 3.0 is a suite of voluntary technical Standards and Recommended Practices that is fundamentally different from predecessor ATSC systems and is therefore largely incompatible with them. This divergence from earlier design is intended to allow substantial improvements in performance, functionality, and efficiency sufficient to warrant implementation of a non-backwards-compatible system. With higher capacity to deliver Ultra High-Definition services, robust reception on a wide range of devices, improved efficiency, IP transport, advanced emergency alerting, personalization features, and interactive capability, the ATSC 3.0 Standard provides much more capability than previous generations of terrestrial broadcasting. This document describes the complete ATSC 3.0 Standard, which encompasses a set of individual standards documents, the interworking of which is described therein.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version.

Download A/300:2019, “ATCS 3.0 System,” approved 17 September 2019. A zip file is provided that includes the A/300 Standard and all ATSC documents that are normatively referenced in A/300:2019.

Download A/300:2020, “ATSC 3.0 System,” approved 15 May 2020. A zip file is provided that includes the A/300 Standard and all ATSC documents that are normatively referenced in A/300:2020.

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This document describes the system discovery and signaling architecture for the ATSC 3.0 physical layer. Broadcasters anticipate providing multiple wireless-based services, in addition to conventional broadcast television in the future. Such services may be time-multiplexed together within a single RF channel. The bootstrap provides a universal entry point into a broadcast waveform. The bootstrap employs a fixed configuration (e.g., sampling rate, signal bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, time-domain structure) known to all receiver devices and carries information to enable processing and decoding the wireless service associated with a detected bootstrap. This capability ensures that broadcast spectrum can be adapted to carry new services and/or waveforms for public interest to continue to be served in the future.

Download A/321:2016, “System Discovery and Signaling”, approved 23 March 2016. This document is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

A/321:2016, dated 23 March 2016, was approved and adopted by reference into the U.S. FCC Rules 47 CFR § 73.682.

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This Standard describes the RF/Transmission of a physical layer waveform. This waveform enables flexible configurations of physical layer resources to target a variety of operating modes. The intent is to signal the applied technologies and allow for future technology adaptation.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/322:2017, “Physical Layer Protocol”, approved 6 June 2017. This is the version referenced by the U.S. FCC.

A/322:2017, dated 6 June 2017, was approved and adopted by reference into the FCC Rules 47 CFR § 73.682. The following document summarizes changes made to A/322 since the 2017 version. Download Approved Changes to A/322, “Physical Layer Protocol”, 24 March 2020.

Download A/322:2018, “Physical Layer Protocol”, approved 26 December 2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/322:2020, “Physical Layer Protocol”, approved 23 January 2020. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

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This standard specifies the physical layer and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer for the ATSC 3.0 Dedicated Return Channel (DRC). The DRC physical layer specifies the uplink framing, baseband signal generation, random access, and downlink synchronization scheme. The DRC MAC layer specifies the MAC procedures, MAC PDU formats, and signaling schemes between the ATSC 3.0 downlink and DRC.

Download A/323:2018, “Dedicated Return Channel for ATSC 3.0”, approved 7 December 2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This standard specifies the protocol on the Studio-to-Transmitter Link (STL) from studio-side infrastructure to a Single Frequency Network (SFN) of Transmitters. It defines delivery protocols for ALP Transport. The document also defines possible interfaces among the studio infrastructure, for example the interconnection of the ATSC 3.0 Link Layer Protocol (ALP) and a Broadcast Gateway. This document specifies certain constraints on the scheduling of content and signaling on the Physical Layer. The described scheduling process enables Preamble generation and emission time management. It specifies certain aspects of Transmitter behavior and certain parameters of Transmitter operation.

Download A/324:2018, “Scheduler / Studio to Transmitter Link”, approved 5 January 2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

A Candidate Standard revision of A/324 is available that may be helpful to implementers. Please see the ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standards page.

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This standard defines the ATSC Link-Layer Protocol (ALP). ALP corresponds to the data link layer in the OSI 7-layer model. ALP provides a path to deliver IP packets, link layer signaling packets, and MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS) packets down to the RF Layer and back, after reception. ALP also optimizes the proportion of useful data in the ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer by means of efficient encapsulation and overhead reduction mechanisms for IP and MPEG-2 TS transport. ALP provides extensible headroom for future use.

Download A/330, “Link-Layer Protocol”, approved 3 May 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document specifies protocols used for delivery and synchronization of media and non-timed data in the ATSC 3.0 system. A/331 specifies the technical mechanisms and procedures pertaining to service signaling and IP-based delivery of a variety of ATSC 3.0 services and contents to ATSC 3.0-capable receivers over broadcast, broadband, and hybrid broadcast/broadband networks. The service signaling functionality defines the data formats and information components necessary to discover and acquire user services. The IP-based delivery functionality specifies two application transport protocols for the carriage of media content and service signaling data over broadcast and/or broadband networks to receivers. The delivery functionality also includes mechanisms for the synchronization of media components delivered on the same or different transport networks, and application-layer forward error correction methods that enable error-free reception and consumption of media streams or discrete file objects. A component of this standard is the accompanying schema.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/331:2019, “Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection”, and accompanying schema, approved 20 June 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 1, “MMT Hybrid Delivery”, approved 6 January 2020.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 2, “Fix Daylight Saving”, approved 16 January 2020.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 3, “ServiceId URL and BSID-PLP Mapping”, approved 26 December 2019.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 4, “User Agent String”, approved 15 January 2020.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 5, “Fix RRT”, approved 30 December 2019.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 6, “Simulcast TSID”, approved 31 December 2019.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 7, “DRM System ID”, approved 3 January 2020.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 8, “Uniqueness of @serviceID”, approved 1 January 2020.

Download A/331:2019 Amendment No. 9, “Fix Keep Screen Clear”, approved 2 January 2020.

Download A/331:2020, “Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection”, 16 January 2020. This document is a rollup of Amendments No. 1 through 9 to A/331:2019. The accompanying schema (unchanged from A/331:2019) can be downloaded from the above link. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

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The normative portions of this document define a standard for announcement of services in an ATSC 3.0 broadcast.

Download A/332:2017, “Service Announcement”, approved 6 December 2017. A component of A/332 is the accompanying schema. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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The normative portions of this document define a standard for service usage reporting for ATSC 3.0.

Download A/333, “Service Usage Reporting”, approved 4 January 2017. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document specifies the VP1 audio watermark for use with systems conforming to the ATSC 3.0 family of specifications. The document specifies the format in which the audio watermark resides in a PCM audio signal. Emission by a broadcaster of the audio watermark is optional.

Download A/334, “Audio Watermark Emission”, approved 19 September 2016. This version is referenced by A/330:2019 and A/300:2020.

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The video watermark technology described in this document provides the capability to robustly embed ancillary data in the transmitted pixels of a video signal. It is intended to provide a data path for its ancillary data payload that can readily survive changes in video compression data rate, transcoding to other video compression codecs, and delivery over legacy consumer HDMI interfaces. It is not intended to be a tamper-resistant or indelible watermark, and it may be deliberately obliterated by an intermediary. Emission by a broadcaster of the video watermark is optional.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/335:2016 “Video Watermark Emission”, approved 20 September 2016. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/335:2016 Amendment No. 1, “Additional Video Resolutions”, approved 9 December 2019.

Download A/335:2016, “Video Watermark Emission, with Amendment No. 1”. This document has Amendment No. 1 integrated into the standard. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

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This document specifies methods by which receivers may recover content that is available from a broadcaster, but not delivered directly to the receiver through the RF broadcast signal. This method may be useful in the use case when the receiver is connected to a set-top box via an HDMI cable and is only receiving uncompressed A/V content and not the full signaling tables or alternate content choices offered by the broadcaster. The methods described in this document require an automatic content recognition (ACR) mechanism. The ACR mechanism is either the video and audio watermarks specified for use within ATSC 3.0 broadcast emissions or a fingerprint mechanism described in this document.

This document describes the method for a receiver to recover content via a broadband interface once it has acquired an ATSC 3.0 watermark payload or has identified content using fingerprints. It also specifies the format of certain files that may be returned in response to such a content recovery request.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/336:2018, “Content Recovery in Redistribution Scenarios”, approved 11 December 2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/336:2018 Amendment No. 1, “Timed VP1 Messages”, approved 26 August 2019.

Download A/336:2018 Amendment No. 2, Addition of Media Type Definitions”, approved 27 August 2019.

Download A/336:2018 Amendment No. 3, “Dynamic Event Message Enhancements”, approved 3 October 2019.

Download A/336:2019, Content Recovery in Redistribution Scenarios”, 3 October 2019. This is an editorial rollup of Amendments 1 – 3 to A/336:2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

Download A/336:2019 Amendment No. 1, “IANA Registration Alignment”, approved 4 June 2020.

Download A/336:2019,”Content Recovery in Redistribution Scenarios,  with Amendment No. 1”. This document has Amendment No. 1 integrated into the standard.

A/336 establishes entity_string() and Server Code namespaces for use by broadcasters who want to incorporate ATSC-specified video and audio watermarks into their services. Use of A/336 requires registration of values within those namespaces prior to their use. The following organization is authorized to issue entity_string() and Server Code registrations: Verance.

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This document specifies mechanisms for signaling the properties of applications, including their lifecycle states, and also mechanisms for delivering activation notifications synchronized with a time base, so that the actions of applications can be synchronized accordingly.

Download A/337, “Application Event Delivery”, approved 30 April 2019. A component of A/337 is in the accompanying schema. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document specifies the communication protocol between an ATSC 3.0 primary device and an ATSC 3.0 companion device. In this context, the primary device is the primary receiver and is used to present the primary content. The companion device communicates with the primary device to present related, supplementary content, or even the same content as that being presented on the primary device. Examples of primary devices include television sets, set-top/converter boxes, and mobile devices that are capable of receiving ATSC 3.0 services. Examples of companion devices are laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/338:2017, “Companion Device,” approved 17 April 2017. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/338:2019 “Companion Device,” approved 2 October 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

Download A/338:2019 Amendment No. 1, “CD Event Stream API,” approved 21 January 2020.

Download A/338:2019, “Companion Device, with Amendment No. 1”. This document has Amendment No. 1 integrated into the standard.

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This Standard describes the video coding constraints on ITU-T Rec. H.265 | International Standard ISO/IEC 23008-2 (“HEVC”) when it is used for video compression in the ATSC 3.0 Digital Television System. Any other video coding technologies in the ATSC 3.0 system are documented in their own ATSC Standard(s). A/300 provides references to the various video coding technology document(s) in the ATSC 3.0 system. Signaling of the video compression technology in use is defined A/331.

Download A/341:2019, “Video – HEVC”, approved 14 February 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document specifies the common framework for ATSC 3.0 Audio. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the specific audio technologies described in subsequent parts of this Standard. The ATSC 3.0 audio system provides immersive and personalizable sound for television. It is not compatible with the audio system used in ATSC 1.0 service.

Download A/342 Part 1, “Audio Common Elements”, approved 24 January 2017. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document standardizes the AC-4 audio system for use in the ATSC 3.0 Digital Television System. It describes the characteristics of the AC-4 audio system and establishes a set of constraints on ETSI TS 103 190-2 for use within ATSC 3.0 broadcast emissions. The ATSC 3.0 audio system provides an enhanced feature set and improves upon the capabilities of past ATSC audio systems. The system provides listeners with both a personalized and an immersive experience. The ATSC 3.0 audio system establishes a common framework for multiple Next Generation Audio (NGA) systems, both current and future. The AC-4 audio system is one of the NGA systems standardized in ATSC 3.0.

Download A/342 Part 2, “AC-4 System”, approved 23 February 2017. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document standardizes the MPEG-H Audio system for use in the ATSC 3.0 Digital Television System. It describes the characteristics of the MPEG-H Audio system and establishes a set of constraints on MPEG-H Audio for use within ATSC 3.0 broadcast emissions. The ATSC 3.0 audio system provides an enhanced feature set and improves upon the capabilities of past ATSC audio systems. The system provides listeners with both a personalized and an immersive experience. The ATSC 3.0 audio system establishes a common framework for multiple Next Generation Audio (NGA) systems, both current and future. The MPEG-H Audio system is one of the NGA systems standardized in ATSC 3.0.

Download A/342 Part 3, “MPEG-H System”, approved 3 March 2017. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This standard defines the required technology for closed caption and subtitle tracks over ROUTE-DASH and MMT transports. This includes the content essence and the packaging and timing.

Download A/343, “Captions and Subtitles”, approved 10 October 2018. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

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This document describes the interactive content environment provided by an ATSC 3.0 receiver. This environment is comprised of a standard W3C User Agent with known characteristics, a WebSocket interface for obtaining information from the receiver and controlling various receiver functionality, and an HTTP interface for accessing files delivered over broadcast. This document also specifies the life cycle of the interactive content when delivered over broadband or broadcast or both.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/344:2019, “ATSC 3.0 Interactive Content”, approved 2 May 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 1, “Persistent IDs”, approved 29 July 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 2, “JSON RPC Cancel Request API Addition”, approved 16 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 3, “Redistribution Use Case”, approved 18 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 4, “RMP State”, approved 19 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 5, “Capabilities”, approved 23 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 6, “Remove JavaScript Sample Code”, approved 24 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 7, “CacheRequest API”, approved 25 December 2019.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 8, “Signaling Data”, approved 7 February 2020.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 9, “Service Guide”, approved 31 January 2020.

Download A/344:2019 Amendment No. 10, “DRM Error Codes”, approved 3 February 2020.

Download A/344:2020, “ATSC 3.0 Interactive Environment”, 7 February 2020. This document is a rollup of Amendments No. 1 through 10 to A/344:2019, plus editorial cleanup.

Download A/344:2020 Corrigendum No. 1, approved 29 April 2020.

Download A/344:2020, “ATSC 3.0 Interactive Environment, with Corrigendum No. 1”. This document has Corrigendum No. 1 integrated into the standard. This version is referenced by A/300:2020.

A Candidate Standard revision of A/344 is available that may be helpful to implementers. Please see the ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standards page.

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This standard specifies the mechanisms for security and service protections in ATSC 3.0 systems.

There are multiple versions of this document. Please be sure to download the desired version. For amendments, the text includes a list of changes, the rationale for the changes, and compatibility considerations.

Download A/360:2019, “ATSC 3.0 Security and Service Protection”, approved 20 August 2019. This version is referenced by A/300:2019 and A/300:2020.

Download A/360:2019 Amendment No. 1, “A/360 Schema”, approved 22 May 2020.

Download A/360:2019, “ATSC 3.0 Security and Service Protection, with Amendment No. 1”. This document has Amendment No. 1 integrated into the standard.

Download A/360 Schema (a ZIP file).

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