Three new licensing models from Denver-based Thought Equity Motion offer footage clips from Paramount Pictures, MGM Studios, Sony and others at prices that begin at $20—for select uses. As of this week, Web, corporate communication and presentation “stores†have been integrated into the Though Equity Web site.
According to the company, the offering responds to the needs of new-media professionals. The stores contain tens of thousands of Web-resolution clips from the biggest names in broadcasting and entertainment, including rights-managed and royalty-free content fully cleared for specified uses.
The Web store allows online uses in advertising and site design. The corporate store offers footage for use in trade-event displays, internal networks, interactive DVDs and corporate Web sites. All clips in both are priced at $49.
The presentation store caters a broader, often amateur buyer segment who produce home videos, personal Web sites and school projects or want to use video on social networks. Clips destined for PowerPoint presentations cost $20; personal Web uses are $32.
The new stores market a smaller portion of Thought Equity’s inventory. All clips in this offering are also available in standard or high-definition quality at traditional licensing rates, which start at $449 and $899, respectively. Some content, such as clips from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is not part of the offering, as it cannot be cleared for some of the allowed uses.
Thought Equity’s announcement takes on the microstock segment’s leader by stating that its new offering has “clear advantages over sites like iStock,†which has a similarly priced footage offering. Such advantages include professionally shot, big-brand, rights-cleared content offered at such low cost for the first time.
The move is not unprecedented. Since its initial launch by Getty Images, $49 Web-use licensing has become commonplace among traditional stock suppliers. More recently, Alamy launched several use-based image-license types, as part of a “Novel Use†program similar in purpose to Though Equity’s new offering.