The Digital Production Partnership (DPP) is an initiative formed jointly by the UK's public service broadcasters to help producers and broadcasters maximise the potential benefits of digital television production.
In 2009 representatives from across the TV industry identified key areas where they felt the broadcasters could undertake work that would make a real difference in the transition to digital production, ideally helping TV producers and post-production houses overcome the complexities and get to the benefits of digital working more quickly.[1]
The areas identified formed the basis for the DPP's working groups, drawing on industry experts from all areas of TV production and technology. This included work on common technical and metadata standards for digital TV production and sharing best practice in digital production across the industry.
From 1 April 2015 the DPP became a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee: Digital Production Partnership Ltd.[2]
To date, the DPP has been funded by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. These broadcasters continue to provide lead funding, but becoming a Membership organisation means the DPP is now more directly accountable to all those it works on behalf of, from across the whole industry. It continues to be core to the purpose of the DPP to reduce complexity and increase interoperability across the industry – everywhere.
The DPP works closely with trade bodies such as AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association) in the US, EBU (European Broadcasting Union),[3] UK Screen (Post Production representatives) and the PMA (Production Managers Association) to articulate the needs of the UK TV production industry.
The DPP has also shared their portfolio of industry standards and guidelines with the BBC Academy College of Technology and Creative Skillset's media academies in order to help train digital television programme makers.[4]