Getty Images And BBC Studios Partner On Platform Enabling ‘Unprecedented’ Access To BBC Archive Video

Getty Images, a 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 were previously available only 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.

Curated collections around upcoming events and commissioning trends support ideation, while the latest Speech to Text tools enable programme makers to ‘transcript search’ all assets, bringing to light previously hidden content from BBC Motion Gallery’s vast archive.

Paul Davis, Getty Images vice president of media and production EMEA, 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 gamechanger 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 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 more than 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.