British Pathé has signed a major deal to represent Reuters’ historic footage filmed before 1980.
The deal encompasses complete, fully-digitised collections from early cinema newsreels from 1910 to 1959, including Gaumont Graphic, Empire News Bulletin, British Paramount, and Gaumont British, as well as Visnews content from 1957 to 1979.
It brings the total number of film items offered by British Pathé to 208,000 and the date range covered to 1980.
The newsreels, cinemagazines and documentaries features events such as the Titanic setting off from Belfast, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the coronation of Elizabeth II, the Beatles taking the world by storm, Vietnam, Watergate, and Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power.
Media professionals can download free low-resolution files for use as screeners. The original film reels for both collections are available for HD transfers.
“It is extremely exciting to be uniting two of the world’s great archives by combining Reuters’ rich and prestigious collection prior to 1980 with our own,” said Alastair White, chief executive of British Pathé. “The depth and breadth offered by Pathé News and Reuters historical archive establishes British Pathé as the “go to” place for anyone looking to license historical video content.”
