Footage.net has published the results of the Footage Industry Pandemic Industry Survey, which captures a real-time snapshot of how footage companies are responding to the pandemic-related disruptions that began to take hold worldwide in early March.
At this stage, it looks like most footage companies, at least in our sample group, have been able to maintain their essential business operations and continue delivering footage to their customers.
The 36-page report is now ready for distribution and, as promised, Footage.net is making it available for free to the footage industry. (davidwseevers@gmail.com ) if you would like to receive a copy please send an email to (
qnivqjfrriref@tznvy.pbz ).
The survey ran from April 9 to April 19, 2020. Over this period, we invited over 550 footage companies from around the world to participate. In the end, 67 companies completed the survey over eleven days, and we are very grateful for the help of all the footage companies that participated.
The survey included 16 total questions, the first five of which were demographic in nature and intended to provide context and perspective on the key findings. As a group, the companies that participated are based mainly in the US or the UK; they are, for the most part, mature businesses (ten years or older); and trade predominantly in archival, news and location-based footage.
Key Findings
Many of the key findings in this survey are cautiously optimistic. While footage companies have been disrupted by the pandemic-related shutdowns, they seem to have adjusted to the new business environment quickly, and at this point, the impact on their businesses has not been overwhelmingly negative. Encouragingly, only 12% of respondents indicated that the pandemic has “very significantly” affected their footage business.
Most of the key operational functions we asked about, such as delivery of footage to customers, managing staff, and access by staff to analog film & tape collections, appear to be relatively unimpeded, meaning that the companies are able to manage their core operations while, for the most part, working remotely.
New inquiries are coming in, and while final sales have slowed for the majority of companies over the last month, this may prove to be a temporary dip as clients reorient themselves and, hopefully, resume their work.
Going forward, only a small percentage (6%) expect the pandemic to have a positive effect on their revenues over the next 12 months. 71% believe their revenues will either decrease (37%), or that it’s “too early to tell” (34%).
Most respondents (43%) believe it is “too early to tell” whether the pandemic will drive an overall increase in demand for footage. That said, 27% believe the pandemic will cause an increased demand for footage, driven primarily by the difficulties in location-based production, which will be offset by increased archival-based production.
Anxieties about future threats to the footage industry are fairly high. We asked about eight different potential threats, and fear of a global recession led the pack.
Clearly, we are still at the beginning of this crisis, and the future is rife with uncertainty. We hope this report can provide at least a baseline for our industry at this juncture.