The Broadcast Wave Format, or BWF, is a format improvement defined by the European Broadcast Union, used to transfer audio files between various broadcast settings.
The primary distinction is the definition of a new chunk type called Broadcast Audio Extension ("bext"). It contains information about the file's creator, the date and time it was created, and various technical and administrative details.
A "bext" chunk is required in every Broadcast WAV file. Broadcast WAV files will play even though conventional WAV software cannot utilize the additional data because it skips over chunk types it does not recognize. BWF supports new chunk types for metadata, including XML, primarily used in BWF, and XMP, widely used for media files.