realityshowuri

realityshowuri is a proposed standardized identifier intended to uniquely reference reality television programs across digital catalogs, streaming libraries, and metadata ecosystems. It is designed to persist across platforms, supporting unambiguous linking even when show titles vary by region or season naming changes.

Structure: A realityshowuri generally follows a scheme such as realityshowuri://registry.example.org/show/slug/year/season/episode, with optional query parameters for region, language, and version. A minimal form might be realityshowuri://registry.example.org/show/the-voice/2019/season-2/episode-4. The slug encodes the canonical title; the year anchors the release period, and season/episode identify a specific installment. Registries may also include a stable numeric identifier for legacy integration.

Usage and benefits: By providing a persistent and resolvable reference, realityshowuri facilitates data integration across catalogs, streaming platforms, recommendation engines, and archival systems. It helps disambiguate similarly named shows and supports cross-service linking and metadata synchronization.

Governance and adoption: There is no single governing body for realityshowuri. Proposals have circulated within library science, digital humanities, and linked-data communities, drawing on practices from URIs, ISAN, and IMDb-like identifiers. Adoption varies by organization, with exchange of realityshowuri values embedded in metadata records and APIs.

Relation to other identifiers: Realityshowuri complements existing identifiers such as IMDb IDs, ISAN, and UPC-based program IDs, serving as a resolvable, web-friendly reference. It is particularly useful when a program has multiple regional titles or streaming variants that need a unified reference.

Example use case: A metadata aggregator stores a realityshowuri for The Amazing Race Australia 2020, season 5, episode 9, enabling a single cross-service link to fetch synopsis, cast, and streaming availability.