Well, analogue HDTV and digital music formats were already experimented in '70s and '80s by Japanese [MUSE, Hi-Vision, CDs] and European [HD-MAC, NICAM, also CDs] researchers, so it is no surprise that similar research into digital realm are being performed [H.26*, MPEG-1 Audio Layer I to III and AAC (MPEG-2 Audio), and DVB and DAB were spearheaded by EBU and ETSI so no surprise there].