A new industry group, led by MovieLabs, CableLabs, Comcast and Rovi Corporation, announced the creation of its Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR).
According to the statement, EIDR will launch in early 2011 and is a non-profit global independent registry that provides a uniform approach to cataloging movies, television shows and other commercial audio/video assets with unique identifiers (IDs).
For more information visit: www.eidr.org
Unedited press release follows:
Leading Entertainment Companies Create Registry For Movie And Television Content
Entertainment Identifier Registry Simplifies Digital Commerce for the Industry
Hollywood, Calif., October 27, 2010 – A new international coalition, led by MovieLabs, CableLabs®, Comcast and Rovi Corporation, today announced the launch of the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), a non-profit global independent registry that provides a uniform approach to cataloging movies, television shows, and other commercial audio/video assets with unique identifiers (IDs). Backed by a broad group of industry players, including Deluxe, Universal Pictures, Neustar, Paramount Pictures, Sonic Solutions, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., Civolution, Vobile, INA (L’institut national de l’audiovisuel) and others, the registry is set up as an industry resource to help streamline digital commerce and simplify consumer transactions. The consortium is actively looking to expand with new partners and participants internationally.
Each year, millions of new entertainment assets from many sources and distribution channels are being added to the massive amount of content available in the marketplace. With the growth of digital and other alternative distribution channels, keeping track of all of these content products, especially videos, is becoming an increasingly complex task for many businesses in the entertainment supply chain. EIDR has been developed to address a critical need for a universal ID system for all types of audio/video assets in the entertainment industry, making it easier for businesses to search, track rights and report revenue based on an assets’ unique ID. The expected results are increased accuracy of information flowing to consumers, and lower cost and more efficient back-office processes.
“Most companies today are either using proprietary or disparate organic systems to catalog their entertainment assets, making the process of tracking content across multiple systems very difficult,” said Steve Weinstein, president and CEO, MovieLabs. ―EIDR can provide the missing communication link between businesses. We look forward to expanding EIDR membership to companies throughout the global content ecosystem, which we think is critical to the success of the effort.”
Members of EIDR will have open access to the registry and/or be able to supply their content to the registry for identification. For content distributors, access to unique IDs will help eliminate confusion between assets with same name or different cuts of the same video, helping to ensure that the right products are being distributed to the consumer. For content producers, the ability to register all of their assets will help simplify their post-production process and potentially lead to greater distribution of their products. Other companies in the supply chain can benefit from a streamlined communication process between their suppliers and distributors.
“We believe this standard will improve the flow of information among the companies we work with throughout the industry,” said Mark Hess, senior vice president of Advanced Business and Technology Development at Comcast. ―EIDR provides the much needed foundation to present consistent data that will allow customers to discover and watch video on multiple platforms. We’re continually offering customers more content, and this is one of the tools that will help us build products to enhance their viewing experiences.”
“EIDR is the first step towards creating a better digital commerce experience for consumers. With the basic foundation for digital distribution, it creates new opportunities for businesses to expand their reach to consumers and helps consumers by enabling them to be presented with the right information to make purchases,” said Fred Amoroso, president and CEO of Rovi Corporation.
The IDs within EIDR will function similarly to UPC codes that are used to identify physical packaged goods and the ISBN code for books. The registry will catalog and assign a single, unique unit of identification to movies and TV assets — from entire movies down to clips and composites — and can be used for both physical and digital video media that are part of the movie and television supply chain.
“A standard, low-cost approach for content ID is needed as the industry continues to move towards providing consumers with access to content anywhere, anytime and on any device,” said Dr. Paul Liao, president and CEO of CableLabs. “EIDR will help our members deliver content to their subscribers through their video initiatives, including TV Everywhere.”
Registry Details
The registry is expected to be available to members in early 2011. The registry will support a wide variety of distribution channels and consumer devices by identifying products and assets at all levels – from original productions to edits, translations, clips, composites, bundles and down to granular assets, such as different audio or video encodings intended for specific channels of distribution. EIDR will also provide a set of APIs for developers of third party applications and services, such as workflow integration, reporting, and enhanced metadata. Organized into a hierarchical reference system that links relevant pieces of content to one another, the registry is centralized in a single database that utilizes a sophisticated de-duplication system to ensure objects are registered under a unique ID.
It is being developed as an open, standards-based effort built on the established Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system, created by the International DOI® Foundation and based on the widely used Handle System persistent identifier technology. In addition, it uses the open-source registry software from the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). This flexible, open foundation allows it to interoperate seamlessly with other existing identifier systems, such as AD-ID, the industry standard for advertising asset identification, which is expected to help streamline interactions between content owners, distributors, system operators, advertisers, and metrics providers.
The EIDR coalition is organized as an industry non-profit governed by a Board of Directors comprising key stakeholders from content owners, video post-production houses, content distributors, retailers, entertainment services and technology provider companies. Development of the registry is guided by a Technical Advisory Board consisting of representatives from members of the coalition. Future development to meet new industry ID requirements also will be guided by participating companies.
The registry welcomes the open participation of stakeholders in the international movie and TV digital distribution ecosystem. Interested parties should visit www.eidr.org or at info@eidr.org.
About the Entertainment ID Registry
Launched in 2010, the Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) is a non-profit, industry resource for cataloging commercial digital video/audio assets, such as movie and TV content. The registry has been developed to address the need for a universal, low-cost approach to identifying assets and products for the entertainment industry.
Testimonials
Ascent – Mick Bass
“The volume of movie and TV assets released into the market has skyrocketed as digital technology continues to gain momentum,” said Mick Bass, Ascent. “The EIDR provides a universal tagging system for assets both internally and externally across Ascent’s fully integrated media lifecyle process — from creative post production to content management to distribution and finally, content monetization.”
Civolution – Hans van de Ven, SVP, Business Development
“As the leading provider of content identification solutions to the media and entertainment industry, we are pleased to support EIDR. With the distribution of video and audio content becoming ever more complex and pervasive across multiple platforms, Civoluton helps media executives unlock more revenue from their assets. Participating in EIDR matches our efforts to help the media industry build a sustainable eco-system where all parties, from content owners to distributors and consumers, derive maximum benefit.”
CNRI – Dr. Robert E. Kahn, President & CEO
“I’m pleased that EIDR will be using CNRI technology as a key component in building the registry. Our technology was specifically developed for the management of very large numbers of digital objects on the Internet and its use in EIDR can be of great benefit to the entertainment industry,” said Dr. Robert E. Kahn, co-inventor of the core Internet communication protocols and President and CEO of CNRI. “Specifically, the use of DOIs and the underlying Handle System technology, coupled with CNRI’s recently released Digital Object Registry software, will significantly advance the management of audiovisual objects and their complex relationships on the Internet.”
Comcast – Mark Hess, Senior VP of Advanced Business and Technology Development
“We believe this standard will improve the flow of information among the companies we work with throughout the industry,” said Mark Hess, senior vice president of Advanced Business and Technology Development at Comcast. “EIDR provides the much needed foundation to present consistent data that will allow customers to discover and watch video on multiple platforms. We’re continually offering customers more content, and this is one of the tools that will help us build products to enhance their viewing experiences.”
Deluxe – Greg Gewickey, Vice President, Technology Strategy
“During the post-production process, our studio customers require multiple versions of a given movie in various formats for distribution across the globe and often tracking of these assets can occur in different commercial entities’ databases,” said Greg Gewickey Vice President, Technology Strategy Deluxe. “EIDR offers a viable digital asset management solution for the supply chain, helping increase workflow efficiencies while also lowering the risks of misidentification caused by duplication and lack of ID uniqueness.”
The Walt Disney Studios – Arnaud Robert, SVP Distribution Technology
“Having a standardized asset identification solution for our digital workflows is necessary; EIDR will directly benefit the increasingly complex distribution channels and further enable broad access to content across platforms and devices.”
Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA) – Jean-Marc Bordes, COO
“We have one of the largest archive centers in the world and license our images and sounds to more than 800 customers per year including producers, broadcasters and publishers,” said Jean-Marc Bordes, COO, Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA). “By offering a scalable and flexible unique identifier system, EIDR provides a crucial service that will improve the efficiency of our transactions with customers and licensees, and that will enable us to further expand our distribution globally.”
International DOI Foundation – Dr. Norman Paskin
“The International DOI Foundation is delighted to welcome the movie and television registry EIDR as a member, joining our existing family of registries and some 10,000 organizations worldwide using the DOI System with almost 50 million DOIs assigned to date,” commented Dr. Norman Paskin of the International DOI Foundation (www.doi.org). “EIDR will bring considerable benefits to the digital entertainment industry and significantly increase content coverage to the DOI System.”
Neustar – Timothy Dodd, VP of Media and Entertainment
“Our vision is of a world where consumers can get access to the entertainment content they own on the device of their choosing, and we are committed to this as a company and through our work with DECE,” said Timothy Dodd, VP of Media and Entertainment, Neustar, Inc.. “EIDR brings a significant value-added service that complements our mission, and will play a key technological role in unlocking interoperability across digital content delivery for the industry.”
Paramount – Chris Carey, EVP of Worldwide Technical Operations
“With the growing importance of digital distribution, for full-length features and increasingly for clips and smaller segments, a standardized approach to unique identification of even the smallest digital asset is essential,” said Chris Carey, EVP of Worldwide Technical Operations, Paramount. “The movie industry formed MovieLabs with the goal of enabling more efficient and more profitable legal distribution of content, and we are pleased to see MovieLabs and other industry leaders spearheading an effort like EIDR.”
Sonic Solutions – Mark Ely, Executive Vice President of Strategy
“As a standardized and streamlined system for registering digital entertainment content, Sonic views EIDR as an important component of supporting our retail partners’ digital businesses,” said Mark Ely, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Sonic Solutions. “We will continue to align our RoxioNow platform with key initiatives and specifications that help bring digital delivery into the mainstream and meet consumers’ expectations with respect to flexibility and ease.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment – Mitch Singer, CTO
“Digital content continues to weave itself into the very fabric of the consumer lifestyle and the need for cross-industry interoperability is now more critical than ever,” said Mitch Singer, chief technology officer for Sony Pictures Entertainment. “EIDR’s mission of an industry-wide registry is synergistic with cross-industry efforts as we both look to bring freedom from proprietary formats, ultimately resulting in freedom of entertainment for consumers..”
Universal Pictures – Joseph Cates, Senior Vice President Technology
“As the creator or distributor of video content throughout the world, we see a great benefit to a standardized identifier system, and support EIDR’s mission of an industry-wide registry for identifying and cataloging video content,” said Joseph Cates, Senior Vice President Technology, Universal Pictures. “The entire video ecosystem will benefit from a more streamlined identification process, and the EIDR registry offers opportunities for the market to create new value-added services.”
Warner Brothers -Darcy Antonellis, President, Technical Operations
“We applaud the EIDR initiative as a means to provide an innovative way to handle content management across digital platforms and services,” said Darcy Antonellis, President, Warner Bros. Technical Operations. “Its application will improve our ability to publish and deliver content to consumers via a host of distribution channels with greater agility and speed.”