TV-Anytime is a set of specifications for the controlled delivery of multimedia content to a user's digital video recorder

Digital video recorder

A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...

 (DVR). It seeks to exploit the evolution in convenient, high capacity storage of digital information to provide consumers with a highly personalized TV experience. Users will have access to content from a wide variety of sources, tailored to their needs and personal preferences. TV-Anytime specifications are specified by the TV-Anytime Forum.

The TV-Anytime Forum

The global TV-Anytime Forum is an association of organizations which seeks to develop specifications to enable audio-visual and other services based on mass-market high volume digital storage in consumer platforms.

It was formed in Newport Beach, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA, on 27–29 September 1999 after DAVIC

DAVIC

DAVIC, Digital Audio Video Council, was founded in 1994 with the aim of promoting the success of interactive digital audio-visual applications and services by promulgating specifications of open interfaces and protocols that maximise interoperability, not only across geographical boundaries but...

 was closed down. It was wound up on 27 July 2005 following the publication of RFC 4078 (reference: http://www.tv-anytime.org/).

Its first specifications were published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is an independent, non-profit, standardization organization in the telecommunications industry in Europe, with worldwide projection...

 (ETSI) on August 1, 2003 as TS 102 822-1 Broadcast and On-line Services: Search, select, and rightful use of content on personal storage systems ("TV-Anytime")'. RFC 4078 (The TV-Anytime Content Reference Identifier (CRID)) was published in May 2005.

TV-Anytime has more than 60 member companies from Europe (including BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, BSkyB, Canal+ Technologies, Disney, EBU, France Telecom

France Télécom

France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

, Nokia

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

, Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

, Thomson

Thomson SA

Technicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...

), Asia (including ETRI

ETRI

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea is a government-backed research institute in Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon, Republic of Korea...

, KETI

Keti

Keti is a port town in the Thatta District of Sindh Province, Pakistan. It is situated on the banks of the Hajamro distributary of the River Indus. It is the focal point of river and sea trade in the region....

, NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

, NTT

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone

, commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue....

, Dentsu

Dentsu

is one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. Its headquarters are located in the Dentsu Building in the Shiodome district of Minato, Tokyo....

, Hakuhodo

Hakuhodo

is Japan's second largest advertising agency, with gross sales of approximately 700 hundred million yen. It has its headquarters at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo....

, Nippon TV, Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

, Panasonic

Panasonic

Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...

, LG

LG

LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...

, Samsung

Samsung

The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, Sharp

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

, Toshiba

Toshiba

is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...

) and the USA (including Motorola

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, and Nielsen

Nielsen

Nielsen , is a Danish patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Niels, Niels being the Danish version of the Greek male given name Νικόλαος, Nikolaos . It is the second most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 5% of the population. It is also used in Norway, although the form Nelsen and...

).

The objectives

The TV-Anytime Forum has set up the following four objectives for their standardization work:

1. Develop specifications that will enable applications to exploit local persistent storage in consumer electronics platforms.
2. Be network independent with regard to the means for content delivery to consumer electronics equipment, including various delivery mechanisms (e.g. ATSC
   ATSC
   ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
   
   , DVB, DBS
   Direct broadcast satellite
   Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
   
    and others) and the Internet
   Internet
   The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
   
   and enhanced TV.
3. Develop specifications for interoperable and integrated systems, from content creators/providers, through service providers, to the consumers.
4. Specify the necessary security structures to protect the interests of all parties involved.

Current status

Several implementations of the TV-Anytime specifications exist among broadcasters, EPG operators, press guide printers, etc. Early implementations have been done in the filed of metadata aggregation. More is coming in the field of hybrid broadcast-broadband delivery.

A licensing program for TV-Anytime was managed by Via Licensing Corporation until early December 2010. More information on known patents of the defunct licensing programme's patent holders, claimed to be essential, is provided on the new TV-Anytime website now officially hosted by EBU.