ATSC Standards Update: New Recommended Practice Published

Posted on March 18, 2026 in ATSC News

A/381:2026-03, “ATSC Recommended Practice: Use of ATSC 3.0 Interactive Content,” has published on the ATSC website. This document, approved by the full ATSC Membership on 11 March 2026, provides recommended practices for Broadcasters and Broadcaster Application (BA) developers using the interactive operating environment described in A/344, “ATSC 3.0 Interactive Content.”

The A/344 standard provides a set of APIs that BAs can use to interact with a Receiver. Developers of BAs may use this new RP to obtain guidance on how to best use the A/344 APIs to create smooth interactive experiences. Not all APIs are implemented by all Receivers, which requires BA developers to implement contingency plans for the cases where APIs might not be available for their use on a specific Receiver. Broadcasters can find advice on how to develop their protocol stack operation as well as data to be delivered to Receivers for use by Broadcaster Applications. The document outlines several typical usage scenarios, including

• Closed captions, and which APIs to use
• Enabling the purchase of products and services via Receivers (T-commerce)
• Content replacement

For each use case or usage scenario, the RP provides details on how to develop interactive Broadcaster Applications, and how Broadcasters can provide the data needed to maintain those BAs.

Another Recommended Practice, A/327, has been updated since the last issue of The Standard newsletter was released. A/327:2025-07 Amendment No. 1, “TDM of ATSC with Other Broadcasting Systems,” was approved by the Membership on 9 March 2026. This document describes various profiles of the physical layer as it relates to time-domain sharing of resources between ATSC and other systems (e.g., LTE-based 5G Broadcast). A rollup version of A/327 will be published soon.

A Membership ballot on the annual revision of A/300, “ATSC 3.0 System,” will be issued shortly. The revision includes additions to Annex B on “ATSC 3.0 Operating Configurations.” The revision will also incorporate updates to references and schemas in and to all ATSC 3.0 Standards and Recommended Practices.

ATSC staff are available to answer any questions that members may have on voting.

Posted in ATSC News