CableLabs, which has never met an awkward acronym it didn't embrace, will launch EIDR--the Entertainment Identifier Registry--which will be launched in early 2011 along with partners MovieLabs, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Rovi. Despite its awkward name, EIDR is expected to help smooth the process of identifying and registering the huge volume of digital content being created daily.
It will be especially important as the cable industry, and other video entertainment providers including competing telecoms, satellite and even over-the-top players like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) move their content across multiple platforms with multiple formatting methods.
"If you think about the TV Everywhere initiative (which Comcast calls Xfinity TV) we're trying to get content to multiple devices in multiple formats (and) when you do that you start exponentially multiplying the number of asset IDs you're trying to float around your backoffice VoD system and into the network," Jud Cary, CableLabs vice president-deputy general counsel told FierceCable. "We really needed a universal ID."
Rovi, an initial founder in the non-profit independent registry, has also been tabbed to operate the registry.
"Rovi came to the plate early and was very capable of setting this up. It was very similar to some of their other business," said Cary, noting that Rovi will operate the registry at a "for-cost price."
For more:
- see this news release
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