Getty Images and BBC Studios partner on platform enabling unprecedented access to BBC archive video

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NEW YORK, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Getty Images (NYSE: GETY), a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace, in partnership with BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, announces the launch of a new platform giving its customers unprecedented access to BBC archive video and a new seamless search, purchase and download experience.

Designed to intuitively enable end-users to select and order content, the platform, powered by MAM software specialists VIDA Content OS, allows easy access to over 57,000 programs from the BBC archive which was previously only available offline by a heavily manual process. Customers can now securely search the entire digitized library, view, annotate, clip, share, and download previews for use within projects. Post clearance, the high-resolution masters are available immediately, providing significant benefit for fast turnaround projects.

Curated collections around upcoming events and commissioning trends support ideation, while the latest Speech to Text tools enable program makers to ‘transcript search’ all assets, bringing to light previously hidden content from BBC Motion Gallery’s vast archive. Customers can now access a wealth of iconic BBC content, with programs such as The Office, Top of the Pops, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Planet Earth now available to download for the first time ever.

Paul Davis, Vice President of Media and Production EMEA at Getty Images said, “The VIDA platform is a significant breakthrough in making BBC content more accessible for our customers around the world. Our team is increasingly working as a creative partner, able to assist from ideas stage through production and this platform will considerably enable our efforts in supporting producers to derive successful, returnable shows for the global market.” 

Chris Hulse, Head of BBC Motion Gallery at BBC Studios added, “Our partnership with Getty Images is focused on getting BBC content into the hands of program makers around the world. This new platform is a game changer for us, surfacing a wealth of previously offline BBC content, now accessible on-demand for the first time ever.”

Symon Roue, Managing Director at VIDA commented, “We’re delighted to power the integration of BBC Motion Gallery and Getty Images. As the archive footage licensing industry grows year over year, customers expect an integrated and efficient supply chain for servicing of catalog. Accessibility to the clips that matter, using the latest cloud and AI technology, is where Content OS excels.”

The new platform expands the on-demand offering of BBC content for Getty Images customers who can already access over 200,000 BBC editorial and creative clips on gettyimages.com.

Getty Images offers an expansive video library of over 25 million video clips, including footage from a range of world-renowned broadcast, studio, film-maker and archive partners. Available to customers are contemporary, archive and creative footage, including more than 12 million clips in 4K and vast offline archives from BBC Motion Gallery and NBC News. 

To learn more about the VIDA platform and to search and source clips, please contact your local Getty Images Sales representative.

About Getty Images

Getty Images (NYSE: GETY) is a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace that offers a full range of content solutions to meet the needs of any customer around the globe, no matter their size. Through its Getty Images, iStock and Unsplash brands, websites and APIs, Getty Images serves customers in almost every country in the world and is the first-place people turn to discover, purchase and share powerful visual content from the world’s best photographers and videographers. Getty Images works with over 551,000 contributors and more than 315 content partners to deliver this powerful and comprehensive content. Each year Getty Images covers more than 160,000 news, sport and entertainment events providing depth and breadth of coverage that is unmatched. Getty Images maintains one of the largest and best privately-owned photographic archives in the world with millions of images dating back to the beginning of photography.

Through its best-in-class creative library and Custom Content solutions, Getty Images helps customers elevate their creativity and entire end‑to‑end creative process to find the right visual for any need. With the adoption and distribution of generative AI technologies and tools trained on permissioned content and uncapped indemnification and perpetual, worldwide usage rights, customers can use text to image generation to ideate and create commercially safe compelling visuals, further expanding Getty Images capabilities to deliver exactly what customers are looking for.

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About BBC Studios
BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions and programs and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple, and Netflix. Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programs made by the business are internationally recognized across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey, and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.
BBC Studios | Website | Press Office | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram |

About VIDA
VIDA Content OS is an advanced cloud-native Content Management platform. AI-powered integration underpins many of the features available such as language translation, facial/text/shot detections with automated synopsis creation. These features increase media discoverability and automate metadata generation, making content rapidly searchable. Content owners are embracing VIDA’s platform to store, manage, and distribute, over two million assets and 10 petabytes of content.  VIDA is a Visual Data company, located in London and Los Angeles. Visit vida.studio.

Media contact:

Getty Images
Julia Holmes
[email protected]