Page 51 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 1 2012
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THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 1 2012
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51
Digital to digitise each piece of
content. It was no mean feat making
this decision to invest to futureproof
our business in the middle of a
recession with downward pressures
on many of our clients’ budgets
and when none of our rivals had
attempted anything like this.
However, our scoping made a
sound business case that investing
to create a fully digitised archive
combined with our already
sophisticated e‐commerce portal
would reap rewards; this led to the
all‐important sign‐off from the
Finance Director to embark on the
project to make ITN the only major
TV news archive to become fully
digitised.
ONTIME, ONBUDGET
Fast forward two years and we
have now completed Project Digital
Archive on time and on budget. All
content is in a consistent high
quality standard definition IMX30
format stored in ITN’s Digital Asset
Management system. Flashscanned
files are also stored on an ITN
server, and digitised to high quality
files on demand. That isn’t to say
that there weren’t challenges along
the way. For example, variances in
legacy metadata and the different
tape and film formats that were
used over the years meant that we
had to constantly review and adapt
our workflow. However, our
scoping and planning work had
anticipated this and it had come as
no surprise considering that the
ITN archive spans back to 1955.
Now that we have this vast
newly digitised asset we’re able to
service clients globally 24/7 whatever
the timezone. Producers and
researchers can search and watch
any piece of ITN content at
, decide if
they want to license the clip for
their production and then download
and purchase it online. This was
simply not possible in the past, but
is now making the process much
easier and dramatically reducing
content delivery times. This
transformation of our business
model through Project Digital
Archive is what I call a perfect
example of how the broadcast
industry can embrace technology
and the digital age.
It’s worth making the point that
it is not just business benefits that
are delivered through our move to
digital content. It’s also important
for the industry to preserve history
itself as otherwise, tapes or films
can degrade and formats become
obsolete. Exclusive and iconic
footage such as Nelson Mandela’s
first interview upon his release
lives in our archives and it’s our
duty to ensure such footage is
preserved for future generations as
well as made easily accessible to
film‐makers and producers.
ENHANCINGMETADATA
Our digital vision doesn’t end with
the completion of Project Digital
Archive. We are now enhancing our
metadata across the ITN archive
and we’ve also launched a new
web‐based subscription service for
our on‐the‐day news syndication
business ITN Source News. The
service is aimed at media companies
worldwide that don’t have the
technology or infrastructure for
ITN’s full syndication service, and
offers up to 80 news highlight clips
at broadcast quality every week.
Just another example of how the
web is enabling us to distribute ITN
footage and provide a service to
companies that otherwise wouldn’t
have the capability to access our
content. This is particularly
important ahead of the London
2012 Olympics and Diamond
Jubilee, when international media
companies as well as major
broadcasters will want to access
ITN’s on‐the‐day news footage.
In the archive industry, I see it
as a simple choice: digitise or be left
on the shelf. It may not be as stark
in other areas of the broadcasting
industry and many execs will make
the case for traditional TV by
pointing to examples such as high‐
rating event television that online
can only dream of; but the world is
changing, we are in a multi‐
platform media landscape and, like
the examples I’ve cited for ITN
Source, you may find that digital
content and delivery can transform
your business model too.
■
Our new
service
offers up
to 80 news
highlight
clips at
broadcast
quality
every
week
”
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