Because each ISAN is a unique number that is permanently assigned to an audio-visual work, it can identify his work across national boundaries and language barriers. ISAN is a tool to facilitate exchanges with collecting societies, agents, studios, etc.
As a unique identifier disseminated in many databases, the ISAN is useful in a wide range of digital or automated workflows, particularly to improve the identification of audiovisual rights across national boundaries and speed-up the redistributions of royalties to authors. Such application is implemented in IDA and AV Index rights registries promoted by CISAC and used by 100 content management organizations worldwide.
ISAN is a tool developed for the Audiovisual Producer community, more than 7000 producers worldwide have already adopted ISAN. The ISAN standard is meant to enable a unique and permanent identification of all audiovisual works and their subsequent versions. Affixed (or burnt) into the master and subsequent copies of audiovisual works, it is a key tool for :
- audiovisual cataloguing and rights management;
- verification of use by buyers/licensees such as broadcasters, digital platforms and/or home video editors, etc;
- reducing unauthorized use of protected content.
Because ISAN is a permanent and persistent identifier, registering works in the ISAN registry prevents such works from being future orphan works. Thus the ISAN public registry is a relevant source of information to facilitate the clearance of presumed orphan works that have been previously registered with ISAN.
ISAN can be incorporated into content protection systems to make identification of works easier and thus assist in reducing unauthorized use of protected content.
Broadcasters benefit from ISAN is two-fold: first, in their broadcasters’ role after delivering content the public and, second, when they produce such content themselves.
Whatever the mode of delivery used, broadcasters’ business essentially calls for automation, good planning and tracking of the content they broadcast. They need to manage a competitive schedule, keep a log of each programme transmission and pay royalty streams to rights holders.
ISAN simplifies broadcasters administrative process. A time sheet and an ISAN streamlines the job of managing and keeping records of on-air output. No more mix-ups with work titles. Whatever the editing, language version or original title, a work will not be confused with another bearing the same or close title. The work or version will have its ISAN, its own/personal ISAN. Automated reports can be run, systems can communicate quickly, safely and reliably.
Most broadcasters are also prolific producers of programmes. They can have all their works immediately recognizable thanks to the ISAN identifier and trace the circulation, use and audience of such contents, whether on linear or non linear broadcasting.
The move of the audiovisual industry to digital is followed by an increasing level of workflows and process automation. Data providers are responding to customer automation demands by incorporating ISAN into their data feeds.
As ISAN usage in distribution, broadcast and content management systems expands over time, automated aggregation of all kind of data becomes increasingly possible with simple ISAN-to-ISAN matching operations, resulting in tremendous new opportunities for data providers and their customers.
Several data providers have already adopted ISAN such as
Eurodata TV Worldwide, the international data bank of certified TV programs and audiences (2000 channels, 80 countries), delivers certified broadcasting reports with ISAN identifiers to their customers.
Plurimedia, the leading provider of Cinema, TV and Electronic Programme Guides in France and a significant player in Belgium and Switzerland, is providing audiovisual metadata enriched with ISAN unique identifiers to their customers.
GfK (market research organization) uses ISAN to enhance the VOD market measure and analysis
INA, the French National Audiovisual Institute, one of the largest audiovisual archive center in the world, is archiving more than 100 French TV services and delivers content usage reports enriched with ISAN.
Digital platforms are challenged with distribution workflows that require to communicate effectively along the supply chain an increasing number of information to content owners and technical intermediaries. To support the automated exchange of information along the digital supply chain, consortiums such as DDEX have standardized messages based on standard identifiers such as ISAN.
Producers or distributors can provide the ISAN of their works when they package the content for such platform in order to obtain reports or usages enriched with ISAN.
Digital platforms as ISAN supporter readers can implement the ISAN Rest API to read the ISAN registry, use the ISAN metadata matching service to obtain existing ISAN or get scheduled ISAN registry snapshots.
ISAN for AV Solutions Providers
In today’s consumer-driven market, media organizations are challenged with managing an unprecedented volume of content. With ISAN every audiovisual work and all related versions can be uniquely identified with the required level of granularity, enabling all stakeholders of the value chain to manage efficiently their content and use the same public standard identifier in automated transactions between each other.
Major audiovisual infrastructure suppliers have already implemented ISAN in their products for post production, broadcasting, digital platforms, rights management, content protection, etc...
Microsoft has implemented ISAN in Windows Media, enabling to affix ISAN to the video and read it afterwards. Used together with the ISAN API, developers can create innovative automated solutions.
Imagine Communication (previously named Harris Broadcast) supports ISAN for automated media delivery
