At the 76^th Annual Emmy Awards, it wasn't just the entertainment world that had reason to celebrate. ISO/IEC JTC 1 subcommittee 29 's MPEG Systems Working Group (WG 3) took centre stage, earning a prestigious Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for its pioneering work on the MPEG Common Media Application Format (CMAF). Presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) on 4 December in New York, the award marks yet another milestone in the group's long-standing leadership in shaping the future of media technology.

This latest win joins the group's Emmy Awards from 2021 and 2022 for the ISO Base Media File Format, MPEG DASH and the Open Font Format, further cementing its role as one of the driving forces behind the standards that make modern multimedia technology possible.

Published as ISO/IEC 23000-19, CMAF defines how fragmented media objects are packaged for large-scale online video distribution. Built on the foundation of the ISO Base Media File Format, it provides a common structure that works seamlessly across streaming, broadcasting and downloads. By eliminating early fragmentation in media formats - and bringing competitors like Microsoft and Apple around the same table - CMAF delivered what the industry urgently needed: a single standard that enabled universal interoperability and helped transform the streaming landscape.

This year's accolade marks the tenth Emmy Award earned by expert groups in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, and the sixth recognizing MPEG Systems technology. Previous Emmy-winning breakthroughs include MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 (1996), the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (2014), the ISO Base Media File Format (2021), MPEG DASH (2022) and the MPEG Open Font Format (2022).

Gary Sullivan, Chair of SC 29, said:

This tenth Emmy highlights the enduring impact of SC 29's expert groups, whose work ensures that digital media technologies remain innovative, interoperable, and ready to meet future demands.

Krasimir Kolarov, who has led the CMAF development from the start, also welcomed the recognition: "CMAF is the result of years of collaboration aimed at standardizing a common, industry-wide technology. With the proliferation of streaming services across a wide variety of devices - from phones, tablets and computers, to connected TVs - the need for an interoperable solution that is universally supported is paramount. The technology recognized by this award is a major step in that direction."

About JTC 1 and SC 29

ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, is one of the world's most influential and productive standardization committees, overseeing more than 3 000 published ISO standards and nearly 600 in development. Within JTC 1, SC 29 leads the work on audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia coding, and is home to the renowned MPEG and JPEG expert groups. With ten Emmy Awards to date, SC 29 continues to define the future of multimedia, ensuring that innovations in video, audio and imaging deliver technical excellence and remain accessible worldwide.