Footage Industry Now a $570 Million Business, Says Newly Released ACSIL Global Survey of Stock Footage Companies

Netflix, other Streaming Services Fund Footage-Rich Programming, Largest Source of New Revenue for Footage Licensors

Report Available Now

The fourth survey of the footage licensing business from ACSIL and Thriving Archives examines current business conditions, key trends and best practices within the footage industry. Results highlight market stability, confidence in future growth and shifts in customer demand.

The Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors (ACSIL) and Thriving Archives announced today the release of the ACSIL Global Survey of Stock Footage Companies 4 (AGS4). ACSIL and Thriving Archives have worked together to publish three previous AGS reports, achieving strong industry support and participation in each effort. Like it's predecessors, the AGS4 provides a snapshot of the global stock footage industry, tracks evolving trends and examines how footage companies operate, market and serve their customers, providing footage industry leaders with strategic, practical information to help them compete more effectively.

The AGS4 is now available to for $950. Click here to buy and download a copy. Click here to read the Executive Summary of the AGS4.

Assessing the overall health and well being of the footage industry has been a top research priority since the inception of the AGS series. Based on the performance of the 84 companies within the 2018 dataset, which represent 20% of the estimated 415 footage companies in operation currently, the footage industry is in solid shape, with total industry revenue now estimated at $570 million, a 3% increase over the 2015 estimate of $552 million.

“While we did not find significant growth in the dollar value of the overall industry, we did find that the mood had shifted on many key topics, and individual companies appear to be more stable, confident and optimistic,” said Matt White, ACSIL executive director.

Highlighting this sense of optimism, the majority of companies said that their revenues had increased over the last two years; that demand for footage was up; and that they expect their revenues to grow over the next several years. Conversely, only 37% believe that production budgets have gotten smaller. All of these findings represent improvements over previous years.

“Another key takeaway from our current survey is that while footage companies have rallied to integrate the tools and benefits of the digital revolution, many long-standing business practices have endured,” said David Seevers, president of Thriving Archives and the principal author of the AGS series. “And while online media marketplaces are now fixtures in the footage licensing business, they do not appear to have displaced the older, more traditional footage licensing operations, which seem to be co-existing with these technology driven powerhouses.”

While traditional buyers such as such as “independent producers” and “broadcast networks/commercial TV” remain leading customer types, newer categories such as “SVOD Services,” (which includes Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.) increased the most in terms of overall importance to 2018 companies’ billings, followed by “independent producers” and “ad-supported streaming services,” underscoring the growing importance of these newer streaming services, as well as their future potential.

The AGS4 is based on an anonymous 47-question survey completed by a group of 84 stock footage companies, launched in mid-July 2018 and running through late September 2018. During this roughly two-month period, multiple attempts were made to contact as many footage providers as possible and make the existence of this survey known to the industry at large.

The 191-page report includes 85 pages of detailed analysis and 90 full-color charts visualizing results from the 47 questions asked in the survey. The report covers 11 separate categories, including: Business Conditions; Company Types; Footage Holdings; Headcount; Ecommerce & Order Processing; Order Volume; Pricing; Licensing Practices; Customer Types; Marketing, Customer Development & Growth; and Threats & Opportunities.

The AGS4 is now available to for $950. Click here to buy and download a copy. Click here to read the Executive Summary of the AGS4.

About ACSIL

The Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors (ACSIL) is a not-for-profit trade association representing the interests of the stock footage community. Our members are the world's leading providers of stock and archival footage. ACSIL members represent and license high quality clips and unique deep content. We service traditional markets such as advertising, film, television and home entertainment while also working with a full spectrum of non-traditional, new and reinventing markets like book publishing, museums, educational vendors, video gaming, internet apps and beyond. Since its inception in 2003, ACSIL has focused on developing a professional network for its stock footage library members as well as negotiating benefits on our members' behalf. ACSIL sponsors multiple stock footage based initiatives including: gathering data on the global stock footage market, forming a Code of Practices committee to lead discussions about new licensing paradigms and monitoring shifts in domestic and international copyright law. ACSIL also reaches out to meet the needs of the production community. We sponsor events, host panel discussions and present seminars on a wide range of footage industry subjects. Whether it's sharing best practices for footage research or talks about licensing and rights clearances, ACSIL is there to support the production community. If you are interested in having ACSIL speak to your group or organization, please contact us so we can make the necessary arrangements.

About Thriving Archives

Thriving Archives works with footage companies to develop and execute marketing and business development strategies. Thriving Archives also produces market research reports on the global footage licensing industry and partners with companies providing services to the stock footage industry. In partnership with ACSIL, Thriving Archives has produced the ACSIL Global Survey of Stock Footage Companies 2007 (AGS1), 2011 (AGS2) and 2015 (AGS3). In 2009, Thriving Archives published the Footage Customer Survey: Non-Fiction USA, an in-depth study of the attitudes and perceptions of footage customers from the documentary film/non-fiction program making community in the United States.

Press Contacts:

Matt White

Executive Director

ACSIL

matt@acsil.org

(301) 920-4054

David W. Seevers

President

Thriving Archives

davidwseevers@gmail.com

(415) 609-7642