CtoA 3 -Agencies Should Analyze Their Getty 2018 Sales

Posted on 11/26/2018 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

In May I analyzed the sales of a few photographers who are major, direct suppliers to Getty. A major issue that all Specialist Agencies need to consider is whether the breakdown in the various price ranges in this analysis are representative of Getty’s total sales? Specialist agencies need to check their own figures against this baseline to determine if this is an accurate representation of Getty sales as a whole.

  Percent Total Percent Gross   Estimate Estimate
  Unit Sales Revenue   Total Images Gross Revenue
  In Price Generated   Will Be Sold Generated
  Range By Images   In 2018 In 2018
over $1000 1.06% 32.40%   100,700 $90,720,000
$500 to $1000 1.80% 16.31%   171,000 $45,668,000
$200 to $500 5.60% 29.61%   532,000 $82,908,000
$100 to $200 2.89% 7.28%   274,550 $20,384,000
$100 to $50 4.50% 5.67%   427,500 $15,876,000
$50 to $20 11.41% 3.53%   1,083,950 $9,884,000
$20 to $10 18.12% 2.44%   1,721,400 $6,832,000
$10 to $5 21.48% 1.67%   2,040,600 $4,674,000
Below $5 33.14% 1.09%   3,148,300 $3,054,000
         
 
        9,500,000 $280,000,000
           
Over $50 15.85% 91.27%   1,505,750 $255,556,000
Below $20 72.74% 5.20%   6,910,300 $14,560,000

Based on this analysis I determined that the average price-per-image licensed was about $29 despite the fact that a few images were licensed for prices over $1,000 and 1.8% were licensed for prices between $500 and $1,000.



If the average price-per-image licensed was $29 and gross Creative revenue was $280 million then the figures in the fourth column are the approximate number of total images from all sources in the price range that Getty will license in 2018. The figure in the fifth column is the gross revenue that would be generated for Getty from all images licensed in the price range.

As we learned in the previous story Specialist Agencies represent about 26% of the Getty's gross revenue. Thus the Specialist Agency share of the number of images and revenue would be about 26% of numbers in columns four and five.



In 2017 I did a similar analysis with some of the same photographers and a few different ones and the average price per image licensed worked out to about $55. When developing an average a lot depends on the number and the amount of the few sales over $1,000, but in 2018 there also seemed to be more of the below $10 sales and at lower prices.

In my analysis one-third of the sales were for gross license fees under $5.00, 55% were for gross license fees under $10 and 84% were for gross fees of less that $50. Contributor royalties tend to be 30% or less of these numbers.

It is also interesting to note that only 15.85% of the uses were for prices above $50 and 72.74% were for prices under $20.



Call To Action


What each Specialist agent needs to do is organize all 2018 sales in a single Excel database indexed on the gross sale price. Then determine the number of sales in each of the above nine price categories.

Determine the number of sales and the total “gross license fee” for each category. (Use the fee that Getty reports as “gross fee,” not the royalty paid.) Then calculate the percentage of the total for each of the 9 categories.

At that point each agent can determine if their results are about the same as I discovered, or if there are dramatic differences.

Depending on the results the agent may want to go to the next step of sharing the information with other agencies. When sharing the information, it will be important to share the number of sales in each category so a new combined percentage can be developed.

It would also be important for each agency to supply a single “Gross Revenue” figure that is the sum of of all reported licensing of their images by Getty in 2018. By combining these numbers from all respondents it would be possible to determine the percentage of Getty revenue earned for each category.

My bet is that the 139 Specialist collections represent a lot more than 26% of Getty’s revenue. Independently each agency has no leverage. Together they have a lot of leverage.

The best way to approach the sharing of information might be through a trade association like CEPIC, BAPLA or DMLA in order to insure that the individual results of each individual agency are not exposed to other suppliers. Only, the combined results of all participating agencies would be generally shared. It would be important to know the names of participating agencies, as well as the total number of each agency’s images currently in the Getty collection, in order to make an accurate assessment of the importance of the group to Getty.

Assuming that all 139 Specialists Agencies will not participate, I would hope that most of the 41 listed below would share their information. That would give a very strong indication of how important the Specialist Agencies are to Getty in terms of gross revenue generated. Of course, the more agencies that participate in the analysis the better.

  2016 August 2018 June   Images
        Added
age fotostock 84,306 112,895   28,589
All Canada Photos 90,463 107,363   16,900
amana images 199,933 225,932   25,999
Aurora 39,917 40,326   409
Aurora Open 18,789 28,805   10,016
AWL Images 130,547 142,878   12,331
blue jean images 41,880 48,145   6,265
Caiaimage 26,332 35,594   9,262
Cavan   93,364   93,364
Cultura 164,301 230,617   66,316
De Agostini Picture Library 217,630 314,261   96,631
Design Pics 64,653 73,825   9,172
Dorling Kindersley 96,074 99,793   3,719
First Light 46,750 60,655   13,905
Foodcollection 26,133 63,416   37,283
Fotosearch 104,032 92,216   -11,816
fStop 40,112 46,312   6,200
Gallo Images 162,351 183,113   20,762
Gallo Images ROOTS RF collection 18,615 38,094   19,479
hemis.fr 70,504 72,350   1,846
Hero Images 41,317 56,828   15,511
Image Source 107,814 122,653   14,839
imageBROKER 80,439 199,995   119,556
Johner Images Royalty-Free 42,376 76,517   34,141
Juice Images 22,889 72,995   50,106
Maskot 22,313 32,203   9,890
Minden Pictures 210,854 123,160   -87,694
National Geographic 223,188 197,341   -25,847
National Geographic Magazines  
58,240   58,240
Nature Picture Library 11,940 16,038   4,098
Oxford Scientific 62,075 60,876   -1,199
Panoramic Images 52,564 55,471   2,907
Perspectives 69,192 110,093   40,901
PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections 79,607 85,196   5,589
Photononstop 52,038 66,673   14,635
robertharding 87,697 101,924   14,227
Science Photo Library 93,188 90,453   -2,735
Science Source 99,544 98,698   -846
Tetra/Blend Images 435,228 295,524   -139,704
Universal Images Group 59,226 59,486   260
Westend61 149,011 265,648   116,637
   
 
   
  3,645,822 4,355,966   710,144


Copyright © 2018 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

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