DTG report: interoperability is the key hurdle as UK plans to retire DTT

September 12, 2026 · VideoWeek

The UK government's green paper on switching off broadcast TV infrastructure proposes two dates: a 2034 sunset for digital terrestrial television (DTT), or a time-limited extension running no later than 2044. DTG, the UK's technical standards-setter for digital TV, has published a report ahead of that transition. The report identifies six functions handled with different technologies across today's TV ad ecosystem: creative workflows, metadata and signalling, trading and decisioning, delivery and execution, measurement and attribution, and identity and privacy. DTG's report identifies interoperability among these existing systems as the central implementation challenge, extending to commercial trading models as well as delivery technology.

Campaigns that span direct deals, private marketplaces and automated trading currently run on separate measurement and identity systems, which complicates any single view of a TV plan. DTG's report links the shift to internet-delivered TV with an opportunity to close those gaps: tighter alignment between trading routes would lift campaign effectiveness, improve inventory use and strengthen advertiser confidence in TV, the report says. The interoperability work now underway will determine how quickly buyers can treat DTT-era and IP-delivered inventory as a single, comparable market.