ISAN was created as an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard, and designed to respond to the needs of creators, owners, duplicators, distributors, and consumers of audiovisual content, among others in the value chain.

ISAN provides a unique, internationally-recognized, and permanent reference number for each registered audiovisual work and distinguishes between episodes, versions, languages, lengths, formats, and more.

ISAN is numeric (actually 96-bit/24 hexadecimal digits), so it can be read by anyone on the planet, and easily processed by any system.

A state-of-the-art central registry of ISAN numbers and related standardized metadata, based in Geneva, ensures that there is no duplication of data.

What is an Audiovisual work?

A/V works include:

• Film (features, documentaries, shorts)
• Television (series, news, sports, drama, variety)
• Web and mobile A/V content
• Video (music videos, corporate, training)
• Interactive (videogames, educational CDs)
• Advertising, trailers, excerpts

For an overview of ISAN, play the video: Welcome to the digital century.

For a more detailed description of ISAN, the system that supports it, its application and its benefits, read this FAQ document.

For the costs associated with registering for ISAN and accessing the ISAN database, read about ISAN Canada Pricing.

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