ISAN

About ISAN

ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number), or ISO:15706-1 & 15706-2 (the ISAN standard), is a voluntary numbering system and metadata schema enabling the identification of all types of audiovisual works , including films, shorts, documentaries, television programs, sports events, advertising, etc. as well as their related versions.

Developed under the auspices of the International Standards Organization (ISO), by major players of the audiovisual industry including producers, authors and rights holders societies, ISAN is now recommended or required as the audiovisual content identifier of choice for studios, broadcasters and Internet media service providers who need to encode, track and distribute video in a variety of formats. ISAN provides a unique, internationally recognized and permanent reference number for each audiovisual work registered.

Among its many benefits, ISANs are being used in production and distribution systems, facilitating the interoperability and information exchange, contributing to improve rights management. ISAN is key to content tracking and monitoring, as it has been integrated in several watermarking and fingerprinting technologies. ISAN has been made mandatory as a Content Identifier by the AACS, the encryption technology used in Blu-ray discs for the copy management and for all online transactions.

Founded by AGICOA , CISAC and FIAPF , ISAN-IA (the ISAN International Agency) is a not-for-profit Swiss association based in Geneva, mandated by ISO for implementing, running and managing the ISAN standard, the ISAN system and central database.

 

ISAN now mandatory in France and Spain

Producer collecting societies worldwide have recognized the benefits of ISAN and are beginning to integrate ISAN into their systems. ANGOA and EGEDA, the collection societies in France and Spain, have recently announced that as of 2010, audiovisual works must have an ISAN code in order for secondary broadcast claims to be processed and paid. It is expected this mandatory requirement will extend to other national collection societies as the adoption of ISAN throughout the industry continues to grow. Read more