APTN and Grinberg agree archive representation deal

Two of the world’s leading sources of historical footage have agreed a representation deal to exchange and sell each other’s material.
APTN Library, based in London, and Grinberg Film Libraries, based in Los Angeles, will begin supplying and licensing material from January 2004.
Associated Press Television News is the world’s leading video news agency with self-shot material from 1963, while at the core of the Grinberg collection are the Paramount and Pathe newsreels, which were the leading news sources of their day from 1896 to the late 1950s.
“It’s a great combination - this puts the best of the old together with the best of the new” said APTN’s Head of Content Development Christopher O’Hearn. “We can now offer a high quality service to anyone looking for content, from the earliest moving images to the latest satellite news.”
Grinberg’s Pathe collection is the world’s oldest moving image library dating back to 1896. The Paramount newsreel was known as 'The Eyes and Ears of the World' from 1927 to 1957. Together they total more than 15 million feet of film, or 6000 hours of material.
In addition, Grinberg boasts movie outtakes and scenes ranging from the Blackton collection of early motion pictures, up to modern productions from HBO.
The initial stages of the deal will see the jewels of each collection exchanged so that they can be provided locally. Both libraries have major digitisation projects underway which will see a broader range of content available, along with improvements in cataloguing and searchability.
Highlights of the APTN Library include exclusive footage of key events in the modern world from the assassination of John F Kennedy to the Concorde crash and the attack on the World Trade Center. APTN’s coverage of contemporary events such as the wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East conflict is unrivalled.
APTN Library also represents major collections including ABC America, ABC Australia, Sports News Television (SNTV) and Vatican Television.
(GB)