ITN Archive launches new stills service

ITN Archive is to launch a brand new cut-price concept in sourcing still images.
The new service is branded ITN Archive/Stills and will comprise a vast collection of more than 12 million previously unseen images covering news and history since 1896. The images have been created by using cutting edge digital technology that generates high resolution still pictures from moving footage. The images are generated from the fully digitised British Pathe Archive and ITN’s own vast collection of news material.
The collection covers all key subjects including historic events, personalities, fashion, trends, sport, music, entertainment, culture and social history. These new stills capture many of the iconic faces and cover many of defining moments of the last century, including previously unseen images of D-Day, Dunkirk, the ‘Swinging Sixties’, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Diana, and even the 1966 World Cup.
Speaking of the venture, ITN Archive’s Managing Director Alwyn Lindsey said: “This is genuinely a revolutionary concept. Through groundbreaking technology, we’ve not only created one of the world’s largest picture archives, but we have effectively turned the clock back and produced photographs that were not actually taken in the past. This presents stills customers with a truly unique and brand new source of previously unseen images. The stills market has for years been dogged by complex pricing models and high prices which have naturally proved unpopular with customers. Consequently, we expect our simple pricing model and exceptionally low prices to receive a great reception in the market.”
It has been possible to generate still images from moving footage for some time but ‘video grabs’ have always reproduced poorly in print. ITN Archive/Stills will offer images with a resolution of 300DPI (more than 400% higher resolution than a conventional video grab), which is of sufficient quality for most print publishing use.
Whereas the industry standard pricing model is based on a combination of complex variables such as print runs, size of image, geographical distribution and length of licence, ITN Archive/Stills will offer a simple fixed price of £25 for using the images in books, magazines and newspapers.
ITN Archive/stills will launch on September 27 2004.
(GB)