Getty Images and Agence France-Presse said they
would team up in a bid to provide better photo services to their respective
customers.
Under terms of the agreement, Getty Images will
have the exclusive right to sell AFP images to clients in North America and the
United Kingdom. AFP will market Getty Images’ North American-oriented
photography to its daily newspaper subscribers in the rest of the world.
The two companies also agreed to make it easier
for customers to purchase single images by using third-party agents to make
sales.
“Getty Images has great strength in North
American coverage and we will benefit greatly from AFP’s reach in regions such
as Asia, the Middle East and Europe,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and
chief executive officer of Getty Images. “We feel the synergies between Getty
Images and AFP represent an excellent opportunity for both parties, especially
in terms of the relative geographic strengths of the two organizations.”
Nearly 150 newspapers around the globe subscribe
to Getty Images’ daily news feed and hundreds of newspapers, magazines and Web
sites use Getty Images news photos each day.
Klein said Getty Images distributes approximately
700 to 1,000 live news photographs daily worldwide.
“This agreement is of major importance for AFP,”
said Bertrand Eveno, chairman and chief executive officer of Agence France-Presse.
“Getty Images’ coverage of North America, including sports and celebrities,
is the perfect complement and will strengthen AFP’s position as a major actor
in photo news, servicing top newspapers worldwide and especially in Europe.”
AFP’s international news photo service,
launched in 1985, is produced by more than 300 staff photographers and hundreds
of stringers. The news service posts more than 1,000 images each day on its
photo wire and Web-based ImageForum database.
The agreement is pending regulatory approval and
is expected to be implemented during the second quarter of this year.
