According to a recent report in Broadcasting & Cable, ABC is converting the distribution of its network programming from an MPEG-2-based system to a more bandwidth efficient MPEG-4 advanced compression.
The transition will take about three months to complete.
This makes ABC the second major North American broadcaster to shift its program distribution to MPEG-4. The first was Mexican broadcaster Televisa, which converted last May.
CBS is also considering shifting from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for its satellite feeds.
The significance of this is that MPEG-4, which includes H.264 compression, now encompasses virtually all the major web-based distribution architectures — Flash, QuickTime, and Silverlight — as well as major broadcast outlets. We can now start focussing our efforts on a single codec.
Its kinda nice to see some standarization for once.
