ISAN

ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number) is an optional numbering system designed to identify audiovisual works. The ISAN is a permanent, internationally recognized number for each work. With ISAN, works are identified regardless of when they were produced and on what medium they were distributed.

ISAN is the basis for the electronic exchange of information on audiovisual works such as feature films, television productions, online media and games. It is used not only to identify works, but also for archiving, copyright and royalty management, cooperation with TV program guides and audience measurement.

Those who license audiovisual works and exercise economic copyrights over them, i.e. shareholders or rights holders, including (but not limited to) producers, distributors, screenwriters, directors, actors, composers;

• Collective rights management organizations (such as SFP-ZAPA), which are facilitated by the ISAN system to distribute royalties;
• Television broadcasters;
• Audience research and analysis companies that maintain databases on audiovisual works;
• Archivists, responsible for cataloging or preserving collections of audiovisual works;
• Organizations developing technology and coding standards for the television, film and broadcasting industries;
• Institutions that need to exchange information about specific audiovisual works, such as anti-piracy fighters, customs and Interpol.

The entity authorized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to conduct central data registration is the ISAN International Agency (ISAN-IA), based in Geneva. ISAN-IA empowers Registration Agencies (RAs) around the world. They serve as a kind of "customer service bureaus" for the ISAN system and handle registration requests and deal with queries submitted by users.

Today ISAN Agencies operate in France, Spain, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, the USA, Brazil, Austria, Canada, , Serbia, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Finland and Poland.

An ISAN consists of three segments: core, episode or part, and version. The core is the basic identifier of the main work. Subsequent parts of a movie or episodes of a TV series may have the same core, but will differ in the component that stands for "episode or part." If a work has no parts or episodes, this segment is filled with zeros (as in the image). Songs (and their episodes or parts) that have been modified in some way, such as having different audio tracks or subtitles added, may have different versions.

The printed ISAN for natural reading looks as follows:
ISAN 0000-0000-D07A-0090-Q-0000-0000-X

The ISAN number facilitates trade in many areas, such as feature films, digital cinema, program information services, content for the Internet and (computer) games. It was initially used for digital cinema work by major U.S. film studios. To date, ISAN numbers have been introduced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its member studios. Program information service companies have contributed to the development of ISAN. Secure Path and Microsoft have announced plans to use ISAN in Windows Media encoded works.