First ITA, then IRMA? now the Content Delivery & Storage Association.

Charles Van Horn, IRMA President, has announced the launch of an association "initiative to address the emerging technology, service and storage needs of the expanding content delivery marketplace."

IRMA's board decision was underlined by the announcement that the association will soon be renamed the Content Delivery & Storage Association (CDSA).

"Just as the International Tape Association (ITA) bridged the transition from tape to optical disc before it became the International Recording Media Association, IRMA will bridge the transition between disc and digital delivery," Van Horn said to the general assembly at its annual Spring Forum.

"I am proud to announce that we are beginning this journey today at this year?s Forum with the formal introduction of a new descriptor to the familiar IRMA logo, which will be followed by a new name this summer. By July 1, 2007, IRMA will become the Content Delivery & Storage Association, CDSA."

According to Brian Wilson, the new IRMA Chairman of the Board and Senior Vice President of Cinram International, the association?s Board has authorized a substantial investment in expanding its current initiatives and investing in new opportunities that will invite new members and new partners from the emerging digital content delivery marketplace under the new CDSA banner.

Wilson adds that the Board has agreed "to do what our association has historically done whenever a new format emerges -- bring everyone together in one place in an open forum to discuss, plan, and debate the many issues involved in the way that digital content delivery and storage will co-exist with packaged media for many more years to come."

The association?s expansion into the digital marketplace on behalf of its membership of content service and storage companies will begin with an exhaustive "market landscape" research project, which will be personally spearheaded by Understanding & Solutions partner Jim Bottoms. The report will become the basis for an industry-wide outreach program that will be supervised by IRMA Associate Executive Director Guy Finley.

"These findings will provide us with a roadmap that will inevitably lead to a wide expansion of our membership base as well as a review of all our properties and current programs. It will lead to the adoption of a new acronym only as we begin the process of living up to the essence of our new name," Van Horn said.