The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has published a new standard that covers the ability of programmers and operators to control fast forwarding on-demand content.

The suite of SCTE 130 standards pertain to advertising insertion. SCTE 130-10 2013, entitled “Stream Restriction Data Model (SRDM),” documents how the industry can to selectively enable or disable Fast Forwarding in on-demand content and advertising.

The ability could be used, for example, during advertisements, while preserving the capability within other portions of the on-demand stream. Historically, disabling or enabling Fast Forward within any portion of an on-demand stream has required that the functionality be applied to the entire video stream.

“As technology presents new options for viewers, it’s important that programming networks and cable operators have the tools they need to ensure the success of their business models,” said Les Carter, vice president and chief architect of BlackArrow, who served as editor for the document. 

Paul Woidke, senior vice president, advanced advertising for Nagra-OpenTV and chairman of DVS WG5, added, “SCTE 130-10 enables implementation of business policies that can preserve the value of sponsors’ advertising investments, and at the same time allows the content control that is so important to viewers.”

SCTE 130-10 was developed by Working Group 5 of SCTE’s Digital Video Subcommittee (DVS).  The standard is available for download free of charge at the SCTE site.