In recent studies and specification work, it was identified that 5G Media functions and 5G System functions need to be made attractive for third-party applications, in particular those that include media delivery. Hence, it is important that these functions are accessible to third-party applications independent of a 3GPP service. For this purpose, it is considered to introduce normative specifications in 3GPP SA4 that are

• more than just a core functionality, e.g. a codec, without any connection to a service or application
• less than a full service that includes all aspects of session establishment, delivery, codecs, rendering and a full user experience

Such new specifications are referred to 5G "Media Service Enablers".

The present document introduces and defines the concept of Media Service Enablers which includes among others:

• Definition of the principal properties of Media Service Enablers.
• Definition of minimum and typical functionalities of Media Service Enablers.
• Definition of a specification template for Media Service Enablers.
• Identification of possibly relevant stage-2 and stage-3 work for Media Service Enablers.
• Collection of a set of initially relevant Media Service Enablers for normative work.

The following documents contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present document.

• References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same Release as the present document.