The EIDR registry went live in 2010. In the early days, it was tough for some companies to commit to EIDR because there wasn’t much data in the registry. But over the past 13 years, the registry has grown to more than 70 participating companies and there are now 2.8 million registered EIDR IDs. In December 2022, EIDR boasted 2.5 million registered IDs. It makes you wonder what exactly is going on at EIDR this year?
The answer is a lot of things are changing in the industry, and that is driving the increased demands on EIDR. Studios have been creating content for decades and in some cases nearly a century. There are only a few hundred titles (per studio) previously considered evergreen, though. Those are the titles that are always in demand and which the studio has rights in perpetuity. Registering other catalog titles was considered a waste of time and money. After all, why would you register in EIDR old titles you have no plans to exploit?
As we all know, the global growth of streaming is forcing streamers to pump out content for their platforms at a breakneck pace. Content teams are delivering to internal platforms as well as digital retailers in massive quantities. Everyone is looking for ways to automate and get more from what they already have to give audiences a continuous flow of new and nostalgia-inducing content in the local language. A worldwide content market requires solutions that scale.
This sounds eerily familiar, and it sounds a lot like the reason EIDR came to be. Digital delivery meant shrinking delivery windows and an increased demand to deliver content globally. Streaming is just the most recent innovation creating a desperate need for additional efficiency.
Registering content in EIDR is a huge step toward automating digital delivery, but it’s not the finish line. If we were electricians, we would have a gap in the circuitry. Closing the loop with EIDR is simple; content creators must put the EIDR ID in the metadata feeds sent to the retailers and distributors along with the content. Doing so will allow the retailer to speed delivery to their platforms and the consumer. Isn’t that the point of having EIDR IDs?
* By Hollie Choi, Managing Director, EIDR *