A URI pointer system and method are provided for the referencing of MPEG-4 data resources carried in an American ATSC MPEG-2 TSFS. The method comprises: receiving an MPEG-2 TS, with a packetized ATSC TSFS; locating a URI in the TS; in response to the URI, accessing an address such as a lid or an http address; retrieving MPEG-4 resources from the ATSC TSFS; and, decoding the MPEG-4 resources. Accessed lid URIs provide a binding name and access scheme to the objects in the ATSC TSFS, as a lid URI embedded in an Initial Object Descriptor (IOD) is used to locate resources in the TSFS such as a BIFS scene description stream and/or an object descriptor stream. Receiving an MPEG-2 TS, with a packetized ATSC TSFS, means that MPEG-4 resources are formed in a hierarchical directory structure of BIOP objects including a DSM::ServiceGateway, a DSM::Directory, and a DSM::File.