CDSA joins EMA's Digital Delivery Council

Groups seek digital distribution standard

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 4/24/2008

APRIL 24 | The Content Delivery & Storage Assn. (formerly the International Recording Media Assn.) has joined the Entertainment Merchants Assn. in its effort to establish a uniform set of standards for digital delivery of entertainment content over the Internet.

The CDSA will join EMA’s Digital Delivery Council, formed last June with major studios and digital retailers, to create a metadata standard to help streamline distribution of digital content. Metadata is the data file that accompanies a digital video file with information about the video.

Currently, studios, replicators, authoring houses, mobile phone providers, digital download companies and various other digital players use different formats and include different information on metadata files. Each time a file is distributed to a company that uses a different digital format, the file must be converted into the new format, which adds time and money to the distribution process.

“Without common standards, the industry faces substantial inefficiencies and unnecessary roadblocks to the inevitable development of our industry’s digital future,” EMA president Bo Andersen said in a statement welcoming CDSA to the council.

CDSA president Charles Van Horn said a set of standards would reduce costs by cutting out the time and extra work it takes to convert files for various digital providers.

“Only through bringing the digital service providers into the discussions with the studios and their retail partners can we truly overcome what is becoming a burdensome production and distribution process,” Van Horn said.