Ingram Content Group has launched MediaScout, a new database designed to facilitate book-to-screen adaptations. The tool, which aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, is being unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The platform is designed to enable rights holders, such as publishers or literary agencies, to share their authors’ books with decision-makers in the film and television industry, potentially creating new revenue streams.
To create MediaScout, Ingram worked with leading literary agencies to collect rights and contact data, said Margaret Hepp Harrison, v-p of digital services at Ingram Content Group, and who is leading the project. “Agents are a vital part of the book marketing process. We are excited to widen our circle to include agents among our industry partners.”
One key feature of MediaScout is its integration with Ingram’s existing metadata system, DataSource. This integration automatically populates basic information such as title, author, and genre, allowing rights holders to focus on rights-specific details. “Once your rights information is in MediaScout, it works for you 24/7, promoting your titles and making it easy for studios to find and contact you directly,” Harrison said.
The system also allows for rapid updates to rights statuses and availability, ensuring that potential buyers always have access to the most current information. For agents managing large catalogs, MediaScout supports bulk uploads to streamline the process of listing multiple titles.
The company did not offer specific details about the pricing structure for MediaScout or the number of titles currently available in the database, but did say it should scale to offer rights and contact information for thousands of titles on launch and, potentially, for the hundreds of thousands of titles in the company’s database.
Ingram’s announcement of MediaScout reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to adapt to changes in the content industry. MediaScout is currently in private beta and will be made available to the public in early 2025.
