ISCI

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An ISCI (Industry Standard Commercial Identifier/Industry Standard Coding Identifier/International Standard Commercial Identifier) code is a standard used to identify television commercials (aka "spots") aired on commercial television worldwide, for TV stations, ad agencies, video post-production houses, and other related entities to identify commercials for airing.

It was first developed in 1970 by and for American local affiliate TV stations, the TV networks that serve the affiliates, and ad agencies, to distribute commercial television advertisements more efficiently. The ISCI coding system has been maintained and operated by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) since 1992. Prior to then, ISCI was independently maintained by its users.

An ISCI code is usually a set of 8 digits, with the first four being alphabetic, and the remaining four being numerical, in the format of XXXX1111. The alphabetical digits usually represent the advertiser (some examples are QWAN for Wells Fargo Bank, KOCL for Coca-Cola(more recently CL, and PEMX for Pepsi), and the numerical digits usually represent the spot itself, with different numbers used for either different spots, or different versions of the same spot.

For example, a :30 second spot might have a code of XECA1263, while the same commercial in a shortened :20 or :15 version (or in a different language such as Spanish) might have a slightly different code of XECA1264.

ISCI codes are usually printed on the video cassette label of a commercial, as well as being present in the production slate and/or countdown preceding the commercial on the tape.

The ISCI coding system is soon to be obsoleted by a new system developed by the AAAA & ANA called "Ad-ID". Ad-ID is similar to ISCI, but uses 8 numeric digits instead of 4. This literal extension of ISCI was developed to bettter suit the identification of advertisements outside of television broadcasting, such as print and the internet.