The Football Association (FA), the governing body of English Football, has announced that it has awarded
SilverHub Media UK Ltd. (SilverHub) and
Shutterstock, Inc. an exclusive multi-year agreement to cover photography, distribution, and syndication services around key events and activities.
SilverHub and Shutterstock will capture real-time photography of FA and Wembley Stadium events including all men’s and women’s national teams, the Emirates FA Cup, and the FA Women’s Super League. Additional Wembley Stadium-hosted events covered will include the closing stages of the 2020 UEFA European Championship, NFL games, and music and entertainment events. The agreement will also grant exclusive access to off-the-field events including behind-the-scenes access to the mens’ England senior team in the lead up to and during this summer’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Photography captured by SilverHub will be made available for licensing to the international media via Shutterstock’s global distribution platform.
“SilverHub and Shutterstock are capturing the key moments from our events, delivering premium photography and providing us with the instant ability to share it globally,” Georgina Lewis, Head of Marketing at the FA, said. “Their fresh approach reflects the progressive and modernisation changes we are making and will help us to better connect with fans of the game. We will give people more access to high-quality event photography than ever before. We are already very much underway, and are pleased to be able to share this announcement.”
Shutterstock’s global distribution platform will provide commercial partners and publishers all over the world with real-time access to license the latest action shots as well as to some of the most prominent archival images from English Football. In addition to covering hundreds of upcoming annual events, the deal extends to exclusively offer some of the best archival content featuring iconic moments from the history of the FA, its competitions and the England teams from the FA’s first 150 years.
SilverHub’s experienced photography team, led by respected veteran sports photographer Bob Martin, brings vision and creativity to this relationship. “SilverHub’s distinct innovative approach to shooting compelling content, together with Shutterstock’s best-in-class technology and distribution, ensures that we have a unique and unparalleled combination of operational, creative and commercial expertise that will make for a great partnership,” SilverHub co-founder Marc Webbon said.
“This partnership with the FA is a wonderful opportunity to further illustrate Shutterstock’s growth into the sports industry within the larger editorial photography category,” said Ben Pfeifer, Shutterstock’s General Manager of Editorial.
Industry Impact
Industry experts estimate that this could add $5 million to $25 on an annual basis to the SilverHub/Shutterstock revenue stream. It is unclear what percentage of this revenue will go to SilverHub and what will be added to Shutterstock’s gross revenue since SilverHub is a separate company.
It will be interesting to see the impact, if any, this arrangement may have on Getty’s roughly $250 million editorial stream. It will certainly result in some decline for Getty.
One of Shutterstock’s goals since they acquired Rex Features in January 2015 has been to aggressively go after the editorial market which has been dominated by Getty Images. It is believed that a very small percentage of Shutterstock’s $557.1 million of gross sales in 2017 came from the licensing of news, sports and entertainment imagery to media – probably something in the range of $10 to $20 million.
Everyone will be watching to see if this arrangement results in revenue growth for Shutterstock in 2018.