Part 3 of the MPEG-2 standard (formally known as ISO/IEC 13818-3, also known as MPEG-2 Audio or MPEG-2 BC) defines audio coding:
MPEG Multichannel - It enhances MPEG-1's audio by allowing the coding of audio programs with more than two channels, up to 5.1 multichannel. This method is backwards-compatible (also known as MPEG-2 BC[1][2][3][4]), allowing MPEG-1 audio decoders to decode the two main stereo components of the presentation.[5]
The MPEG-2 Part 3 should not be confused with MPEG-2 Part 7: AAC a.k.a. MPEG-2 NBC (Non-Backward Compatible) - the MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding with support for multichannel encoding (up to 48 channels).[1][2]