Football League, BBC Sport kick off drive to licence archived footage

The BBC’s clip licensing business, BBC Motion Gallery, has been appointed by The English Football League and BBC Sport to create a joint archive, and digitise and licence the rights of the classic football content it owns. The archive dates back to the 1950s and features iconic moments from English football including not only domestic competitions but also footage from European tournaments covering the great Liverpool teams of the 1970s and 1980s in both the European Cup, as was pre Champions League, and UEFA Cup as well as the triumphs by Nottingham Forest and the singular gain by Manchester United in 1968. The deal will run until 2016 and is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK where a sporting organisation and broadcaster have created a joint archive.   As part of the agreement, BBC Motion Gallery has brought together two partners. Thought Equity Motion will digitise the Football League’s content and licence clips in North and South America, Asia and Australasia, while North One Television will produce finished programming from the archive. Commented Paul Maidment, Director of BBC Motion Gallery at BBC Worldwide :  “We’re delighted to be working with The Football League and BBC Sport.  Having Thought Equity Motion and North One Television on board were important factors in helping us agree what is a great opportunity to open up footballing archives.  We hope this is the first of many similar deals over the next few years.” Added Richard Heaselgrave, the Football Chief Commercial Officer: “Over the last sixty years, The Football League has delivered some of the most famous and iconic moments in sports broadcasting.  Through this agreement, football history will live on and give broadcasters and advertisers the chance to share it with fans across the globe.”