Online video creators hunting for stock nature footage to add to their production, rejoice: VideoBlocks is adding royalty-free stock video from Discovery Channel's library of unused footage to its Marketplace section.
More than 30,000 video clips will be available for purchase in the Marketplace beginning in early 2016, the company said.
VideoBlocks subscribers, who pay either a monthly or a $99 annual fee, have unlimited access to the provider's stock footage library. For subscribers who want additional footage or who want to deal directly with stock footage creators, the company also offers a Marketplace that enables those transactions.
Discovery Communications' "Discovery Access" stock footage, consisting of video that didn't make the final cut of its network TV shows, will be available only on the Marketplace, at flat rate pricing for VideoBlocks members.
"The rollout with Discovery Channel allows VideoBlocks' subscribers unlimited access to the unused content from around the world, including breathtaking shots of volcano eruptions, aerial footage looking straight into the eye of a hurricane, and the world's endangered wildlife in its natural habitat. It's really beautiful footage in its purest form," said Joel Holland, CEO and co-founder of VideoBlocks, in an interview with FierceOnlineVideo.
Partnering with Discovery Communications to add such a large video library to the Marketplace benefits both the subscribers and the cable network, said Greta Pittard, head of content and contributor relationships at VideoBlocks. Pittard, an industry veteran who most recently worked with Smithsonian Network, was brought aboard to help facilitate the team-up with Discovery.
The Marketplace is unique in the stock video footage industry in that creators get 100 percent of the commission when their work sells. That's a tempting revenue stream for any content owner, but particularly for factual/nonfiction genre producers with plenty of extra, unaired footage in their archives.
"I think they realized the media world is changing and we have a very unique model where we are able to bridge the gap between contributor and customers and create a relationship that is very direct," Pittard said. "I think they were attracted to that and saw our model as friendly to customers and them. They can monetize their huge, huge content asset library with us."
VideoBlocks worked with Discovery to bring its library over to the stock footage provider in high-quality HD formats. "It goes through our quality control process," Holland said. "They have such a vast library that a lot of it is the B-roll that ends up on the cutting room floor. It wasn't used in actual production. Some might be some you've seen from their blue chip-style documentaries but most is footage that didn't make the final cut -- not because it's not beautiful but because there's only 45 to 50 minutes available in a [broadcast TV] program."
Holland said the two companies have been talking since March of this year. "Discovery had some questions around, and ultimately were comfortable with, the fact that it was a large customer base and they could do volume pricing," he said. Offering stock footage at much lower prices opens that footage up to a much bigger pool of customers, he said.
Those customers include everyone from video hobbyists to top YouTube creators to major networks like NBC, Holland said.
For more:
- see the release
- and this promo video
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Screenshot: Image from VideoBlocks/Discovery Channel promo reel.