The Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) announced that a growing number of entertainment companies have begun integrating EIDR IDs into their digital distribution workflows.

For more information visit: www.eidr.org

Unedited press release follows:

Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) Gains Strong Support from Major Entertainment Companies

Warner Bros., Disney, Comcast, Rovi, Baseline to Implement EIDR in Digital Supply Chain

Hollywood, Calif., September 7, 2011 – The Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) today announced that leading entertainment companies have begun integrating the use of EIDR IDs into their digital distribution workflows. These developments along with the support of two influential industry organizations – DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) – signal strong growth in adoption of EIDR IDs as the universal unique identifier for movie and TV assets across the global entertainment supply chain.

EIDR, a non-profit industry service launched in 2011, is the entertainment industry’s solution for identifying and tracking digital movie and TV content in commercial distribution, regardless of platform or distribution channel.

Today’s announcement highlights projects underway at Warner Bros., Disney, Rovi, Comcast and Baseline targeting key digital distribution workflows, including online retail distribution, digital infrastructure, VOD ingestion and tracking, and commercial metadata feeds.

Warner Bros. In the area of online digital distribution, Warner Bros. is using EIDR to create a streamlined, effective delivery system for content distribution online – an area that’s highly dependent on accurate data supporting rights and product information. “To further this goal, we’ve invested in several technology initiatives to streamline and automate our interactions with retailers, vendors and consumers,” said Darcy Antonellis, President, Warner Bros. Technical Operations. “EIDR is a key component of these initiatives, providing a global, unique identifier for content assets as they move from creation to consumption. Just as our advertising colleagues have seen a need to use a unique ID system for ads, the need for a unique ID to track media and entertainment flowing online also has become obvious. We are actively integrating EIDR into our content workflow and are working with retailers like Microsoft to incorporate the standard over the coming months.”

Disney. Disney today announced that EIDR is now part of its infrastructure supporting multiple digital initiatives. “We have implemented EIDR into our metadata and internal digital workflows, and, working with our distribution partners, we intend to extend its usage to our various distribution channels,” said Arnaud Robert, Disney’s SVP of Distribution Technology. “EIDR plays an important role in digital media distribution, and we are pleased to promote its use across the industry.”

Comcast. Comcast continues to prepare its video ecosystem to accept movie and TV content delivered with the EIDR identification as well as the associated metadata. “We fully support the EIDR initiative since complete, accurate and consistent metadata is key to our products and features such as browse, search, filter and recommendations,” said Steve Heeb, Vice President of Business Development at Comcast. “The use of EIDR will enable us to develop a robust and accurate database of program metadata from multiple sources that can be used across multiple platforms, including VOD, linear and online.”

Rovi. Rovi Corporation plans to add EIDR IDs into data feeds to its metadata customers as early as Q4 of this year. Rovi, a major metadata supplier to the entertainment market, seeded the EIDR database with an initial set of records after launch. “EIDR enables participants within the digital entertainment ecosystem to access quality metadata, which in turn, helps end consumers to find the content they desire,” said John Moakley, EVP Data Solutions for Rovi. “Rovi is committed to supporting and working with EIDR to help it become the global unique content identifier for movie and TV content.”

Baseline. Baseline, a part of the New York Times Company and a premier provider of film and television information to the entertainment industry, is actively mapping EIDR IDs to its database of professional film and television information and adding EIDR IDs to its products in the coming months. “Our goal is to add EIDR IDs into our data products and, by turn, help integrate EIDR into the global entertainment data ecosystem,” said Amer Saleem, Director of Technology. “The notion of a universal ID is an exciting one that we believe can help our prominent consumer brand clients create a more engaging end-user experience and we look forward to working with EIDR and our customers to support its adoption.”

EIDR also announced today that the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), working hand-in-hand with the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), is recommending the use of EIDR IDs across the digital entertainment ecosystem and actively working to help drive adoption among studios, post-production houses, and entertainment industry service providers.

“Within the DEG, the Universal Media ID Task Force has worked diligently to find a unique identifier for tracking all digital sales.  We are pleased with the progress EIDR is making and look forward to further exploration with them on this essential element within the digital domain.” said Dan Miron, Chair of the DEG Supply Chain Committee, and EVP, Worldwide Supply Chain Management, at Warner Home Video

The collaboration with HITS and DEG and the ongoing implementation of EIDR IDs by major entertainment leaders are helping to make EIDR the chosen solution for unique identification of movie and TV encodings, products, versions, and titles in digital distribution workflows.
“I am thrilled that EIDR in its first months of operation has resonated with so many participants in the digital supply chain. The adoption of EIDR by industry leaders and the support from DEG and HITS reflect a critical need for universal unique identifiers in the supply chain and the ability of EIDR to meet this need effectively and at low cost,” said Kip Welch, EIDR President.

The registry welcomes the open participation of stakeholders in the international movie and TV digital distribution ecosystem. EIDR representatives will be present at IBC in Amsterdam and at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy’s ESCA Europe conference in September 2011 to meet with ecosystem participants and share more information. Interested parties should visit www.eidr.org or contact info@eidr.org.

About the Entertainment ID Registry
Launched in January of 2011, 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 content and products for the entertainment industry. It is 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.