FAQ

You will find the answers to many of your questions about ITN Source in this section, as well as learning how to do business with us, but if you can't find what you are looking for we are happy to help. Please find your nearest Sales Office or email our Customer Service team.

What is ITN Source?

ITN Source (formerly ITN Archive) is a business divison of ITN Ltd, and is the world’s leading provider of professional video content, containing over 800,000 hours of iconic footage captured over three centuries. From news to drama, celebrity, comedy, music, wildlife, natural history and film, and growing at a rate of over 20 hours a day, ITN Source is the most diverse commercial archive in the world.

ITN Source represents the world’s largest collection of moving image libraries including, Reuters, ITN, Channel 4, Granada, British Pathe, FOX News and FOX Movietone and other specialist collections. Our advanced digital website now offers users the convenience of searching for, viewing, downloading and purchasing iconic and captivating footage at the touch of a button.

With headquarters in London, ITN Source has sales offices across the globe in New York, Los Angeles, Canada, Berlin, Paris, Johannesburg, Sydney and Tokyo.

Can ITN Source supply other copyrighted material?

Material will not to be supplied to customers without prior written consent from the copyright holder.

Can ITN Source supply sports footage?

ITN Source is a rich source of sports material. Our newsreel collections include a wealth of material relating to football, cricket, golf, rugby, horseracing, athletics as well as obscure and often bizarre sports. The British Pathe collection is especially strong in sports footage and includes beautifully shot colour footage of the 1966 World Cup. The Channel 4 Archive includes UK footage rights of England test cricket matches. Footage from sports events has always featured prominently in ITN's news bulletins, but it is unlikely that ITN Source will have the rights to license much of this material. However, the ITN collection includes a vast amount of sports news material including sports interviews, "off the field" stories, training sessions and images of sports men and women. All restrictions are published on our shotlists and our team of researchers will be happy to answer any specific questions that you might have. For further information please contact us.

What is in "Stock Footage"?

"Stock Footage" is an innovative new section of the website offering our creative users an inspiring and accessible source of moving-imagery. It features a vast array of individually selected and creatively key-worded clips (or stock shots), covering a variety of genres, themes and moods extracted from across ITN Source’s extensive collection of footage libraries. The aim is to help you find the right content for the right idea as easily as possible.

What are the Compilations?

Every imaginable type of image from a vast range of subjects can be found within ITN Source. For convenience, many of these images are grouped into themed Compilations. The Compilations are essentially pre-packaged samples designed to provide a quick snapshot of what we hold relating to a specific subject. There are currently around 250 Compilations and the ITN Source Product Development team is continuously updating them and producing new Compilations. They are by no means a definitive representation of our entire holdings but our customers find them invaluable for idea generation and as a quick reference resource.

Do you have a stills service?

ITN Source focuses predominately on licensing moving footage, but we will endeavour to provide clients with frame grabs and stills where possible. Please contact your relevant Sales Office for assistance. Frame grabs of British Pathe material can be purchased for personal use at www.britishpathe.com.

What if I can't find what I want?

You can conduct your own research via the website search page. Each item is logged in a document and provides a description of the shots, a résumé of the story, location details and source details. These "shotlists" can be easily retrieved and the search engine operates a free text search. Alternatively, check out our search tips.

If you are still having difficulty, please contact the Customer Service team for advice.

Can I search the database in different languages?

No. At present, the database is available in International English and does not recognise American English spellings. For example, searching for "color", "defense" or "organization" will not, respectively, give results for "colour", "defence" or "organisation".

Why can't I play video from this site?

To play the videos on the site you need up-to-date video software and a computer that supports video.

Flash and QuickTime are needed to view the free preview clips on the site. Windows Media Player is required to view the British Pathe clips.

Flash player
Download Flash Player for IE from: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
Download Flash Player for Mozilla Firefox from: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/plugins/

Windows Media player
Download Windows Media Player for free from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx?displang=en&qstechnology

Is there colour footage available?

ITN Source offers colour news footage from the 1950s onwards.

Does the material contain sound?

Not all of the material on the ITN Source site contains sound.
Gaumont Graphic and Empire news are both mute newsreels.
The British Pathe collection includes clips that are mute, or have commentary or natural sound.
British Paramount News has both mute material and footage with natural sound.
Gaumont British carries commentary and effects.
Universal News is part commentary.
The Visnews and Reuters collections contain news agency material and therefore do not usually carry commentary – they usually have natural sound, or can be mute.
ITN provides news to many of Britain's commercial terrestrial TV channels and all news stories include commentary.
Stock Footage clips are all mute.

What internet browser is recommended for use with this site?

Windows XP: IE 6.x
Windows XP: Firefox 1.x
Mac OS X: Safari
Mac OS X: Firefox 1.x

Can I use footage which features reporters?

Reporter’s commentary and pieces into camera are available to view on the site and help to place the item in context. Release of such footage requires editorial approval and requests should come in writing to Customer Service.

I have appeared in a news bulletin and would like a personal copy, how can I get one?

ITN Source is inundated with requests from members of the public, but unfortunately we simply do not have the resources to provide copies of news bulletins for personal use.

However, copies of recent bulletins (broadcast in the last month) can be purchased from Taylor Nelson Sofres by calling +44 (0) 207 963 7550, or by emailing nick.richardson@tnsofres.com

Can CAVCO Canadian producers use this website?

To enable you to remain eligible, please license your ITN Source footage from Canamedia, based in Toronto, who are ITN Source's sole provider in Canada.

Not less than 75 per cent of the total of all costs incurred for post-production of the production, including laboratory work (which includes archive footage licenses), sound rerecording, sound editing and picture editing (other than costs determined by reference to the amount of income from the production and remuneration payable to the producer and key creative services personnel) was incurred in respect of services provided in Canada.

Please note, Canamedia charges in Canadian dollars, not US dollars.