Gains Reported in Content-Footage Business

LONDON: The sale of audio-visual archive content generates 364 million euros in revenues annually, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of close to 5 percent over the last five years.

The study, from Screen Digest and trade bodies FOCAL International and FIAT/IFTA, indicates that the market for archive content footage has expanded from broadcasters, educators and cultural institutes to include advertisers, filmmakers and online content producers in today’s converged media landscape. Nonetheless, stock footage, news and documentary content generated the bulk of the trade (75 percent) and revenues (63 percent). 

The growth of the AV footage market has raised issues about digital asset management—with close to 43 million hours held in archives worldwide—as well as searchability and online access. Preservation is also a challenge, with tape-based formats of the 1980s and 1990s—accounting for 72 percent of archive content stored—at the greatest risk.

Claire Harvey, the author of the report, notes, "The trade in archives is an important part of the wider media economy, with content supplied by archives appearing in an ever increasing range of outlets. The growing variety of consumer platforms for accessing short-form, long-tail content means that this key role will only grow in importance."