Getty Images and BBC Studios Partner on Video Archive Platform

Getty Images screenshot of BBC archives
(Image credit: Getty Images)

LONDON—Getty Images and BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, has announced the launch of a new platform giving its customers unprecedented access to BBC archive video along with new search, purchase and download capabilities.  

Designed to intuitively enable end-users to select and order content, the platform is powered by MAM software specialists VIDA Content OS.

The platform 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 benefits for fast turnaround projects.

It also offers curated collections around upcoming events and commissioning trends as well as the latest Speech to Text tools to enable program makers to ‘transcript search’ all assets, bringing to light previously hidden content from BBC Motion Gallery’s vast archive. 

“The VIDA platform is a significant breakthrough in making BBC content more accessible for our customers around the world,” said Paul Davis, vice president of media and production EMEA at Getty Images said, 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.” 

“Our partnership with Getty Images is focused on getting BBC content into the hands of program makers around the world,” added Chris Hulse, head of BBC Motion Gallery at BBC Studios added. “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.” 

“We’re delighted to power the integration of BBC Motion Gallery and Getty Images,” noted Symon Roue, managing director at VIDA. “As the archive footage licensing industry grows year over year, customers expect an integrated and efficient supply chain for servicing of catalogue. 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. 

George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.