UTV Goes Global With ITN Source Deal

Northern Ireland images of past and present are to go global.

ITN Source has signed an exclusive worldwide sales representation deal with established broadcaster Ulster Television to represent its news and regional programming content.

This gives ITN Source customers access to almost 50 years of unique Northern Ireland footage covering not just The Troubles and politics, but also entertainment, wildlife and sport.

ITN Source, which already represents a large and diverse collection of footage libraries including Reuters, Channel 4, Granada and FOX Movietone, said that the UTV agreement adds a further 50,000 hours of content making it "one of the first choices for professional video content".

As well as featuring video tracing the Northern Ireland troubles, the UTV collection features rare interviews with big names such as Bing Crosby, famous motor industry entrepreneur John DeLorean and a range of celebrity interviews from 'Kelly', UTV's chat show which ran for almost 20 years until 2004.

The collection also features rarely seen interviews with Rolling Stones and the Beatles in their heyday.

Asha Oberoi, Content Director, ITN Source, said: "Northern Ireland has a very rich history and UTV has captured most of that on camera over the last 50 years.

"This representation expands the depth and breadth of ITN Source's editorial-based content with unique Northern Ireland footage making ITN Source the number one stop for all customers' content needs."

Robert Lamrock, Channel Development Manager of UTV Television, added: "With almost half a century of footage in UTV's archives, this partnership with ITN Source will enable UTV's unique collection to be accessed by producers from all over the world.

See: www.itnsource.com

See: www.utv.ie.

(KMcA)