The entertainment industry has become increasingly global in the last few decades. Now that distribution is almost entirely digital, it has become commonplace for a single work to be released in multiple versions, all in simultaneous release. There can be separate versions for different languages, for different censorship regimes, or different platforms, like theaters, home and mobile devices.

The problem is that each of these versions represents a separate product. Each can potentially have different runtimes, licensing restrictions, and royalty rates. So when contracts are drawn, they must be more specific than just the title of the work.

Performance-level EIDR IDs are for specific versions of a work. Performance-level EIDR records are called “edits,” for different content, or “manifestations,” for different renderings of a work, specifying more technical differences between them (like resolution, encodings, captions, etc.) They become part of a work’s family hierarchy. This not only adds precision to distribution agreements, but allows for far more fine-grained and useful analytics.

A performance-level EIDR record is created as a child record of an abstract title, like a movie or an episode, or another performance-level record. In the EIDR record, the differentiating characteristics can be specified, and the corresponding product may be treated as a distinct licensable and distributable entity.

Distributors tend to prefer performance-level IDs, because they are more precise, and because they allow internal automation when multiple versions are offered through the same channels.

To a computer, it is a number. EIDR is part of a global standard regime in which virtually any item in the universe could be given its own, unique, identifier. The range of numbers is so big (79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336) that it could be used to assign a unique id to every grain of sand on every beach and desert on Planet Earth. So, we feel very confident that the structure of an EIDR ID won’t have to change in the future because they weren’t optimistic enough about its future prospects.

Yes, you can.

Anyone with a commercial or distribution interest in a movie or video work may obtain an EIDR ID. Creation of an ID does not imply ownership of a title, but once an ID is in the EIDR ecosphere, it becomes the single, unambiguous, world-wide reference for that specific work–the same EIDR ID will be used by all parties, in all parts of the world, from that day henceforth.

EIDR IDs ease the exchange of information about titles throughout the distribution chain. Increasingly, it is required. Among the advantages of EIDR asset identification, are:

• Producer-to-distributor, and distributor-to-provider integration
• Improved ratings and retail reporting
• More accurate reporting and analytics
• Eased ad placement and revenue determination
• Meets mandated EIDR requirements for distribution or ad placement

A 2013 analysis by Ernst & Young identified $2.5 – $3.5 billion in financial savings per year from strong asset identification, like EIDR, through improved distribution efficiencies, reduced errors, and increased levels of automation made possible by the IDs.