Broadcast Markup Language

Broadcast Markup Language, or BML, is an XML-based standard developed by Japan's Association of Radio Industries and Businesses as a data broadcasting specification for digital television broadcasting. It is a data-transmission service allowing text to be displayed on a 1seg TV screen.

The text contains news, sports, weather forecasts, emergency warnings such as Earthquake Early Warning, etc. free of charge. It was finalized in 1999, becoming ARIB STD-B24 Data Coding and Transmission Specification for Digital Broadcasting.

The STD-B24 specification is derived from an early draft of XHTML 1.0 strict, which it extends and alters. Some subset of CSS 1 and 2 is supported, as well as ECMAScript.

Example BML header:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="EUC-JP" ?>
<!DOCTYPE bml PUBLIC "+//ARIB STD-B24:1999//DTD BML Document//JA" "bml_1_0.dtd">
<?bml bml-version="1.0" ?>

Since version 1.0 in 1999, BML standard has gone through several revisions, and as of 2007, it is on version 5.0. However, due to a large installed user base of receivers which only support the original 1.0 specification, broadcasters are not able to introduce new features defined in later revisions.

See also

• ARIB STD B24 character set
• Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting
• 1seg
• Ginga (SBTVD Middleware)

Further reading

• Ho, Yo-Sung; Kim, Hyoung Joong (31 October 2005). Advances in Multimedia Information Processing - PCM 2005: 6th Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, Jeju Island, Korea, November 11–13, 2005, Proceedings. Springer. p. 226. ISBN 978-3-540-30027-4.
• Noergaard, Tammy (31 December 2012). Embedded Systems Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide for Engineers and Programmers. Newnes. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-12-382197-3.
• Cesar, Pablo; Chorianopoulos, Konstantinos (1 August 2009). The Evolution of TV Systems, Content, and Users Towards Interactivity. Now Publishers Inc. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-60198-256-8.
• Morris, Steven; Smith-Chaigneau, Anthony (21 April 2005). Interactive TV Standards: A Guide to MHP, OCAP, and JavaTV. Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-136-03569-2.
• Srivastava, Hari Om (January 2002). Interactive TV Technology and Markets. Artech House. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-58053-321-8.
• Broadcast Markup Language (BML) at OASIS

External links

• Official changelog for ARIB STD-B24(in Japanese)
• STD-B24 and others, List of ARIB Standards in the Field of Broadcasting (ARIB)