A quick Question

March 1, 2008 by pmelcher.

Where is the sales director ? who is in charge of pricing at Getty ? Don’t they have a “price director” like mythical company Corbis ?

Think about it. A bit less than a year ago, they purchased Mediavast, owners of Filmagic, Wireimage and Contour for a cool $200 million. Agregated with the already existing Getty and AFP ( distributed by Getty in the USA) content, they have a hold on the best, most extensive celebrity content in the USA. And the USA is the motherland of the greatest world celebrities.

Getty and Mediavast has sole access to most and majority of all celebrity events. They have exclusive access to parties, events, and have prime location for everything else where they are not exclusive. To top it all, they have some of the best celebrity photographers ever to have walked this earth.

One would have thought that two things would have happened by now :

- A heavy increase in pricing. After all, it is almost impossible to publish a celebrity magazine or website anywhere in the world, without access to Getty’s content.

- A disappearance of its competition, at least on the red carpets of America.

None have happened. The fact that the rise in pricing has not increase is a complete mystery to me. What is the point to secure all this content and priviledge access and distribute as a common content ? I understand that selling subscriptions is what Getty is all about but what about profit ? Couldn’t they sell premium subscription for a much higher price with better content? Or, put some coverage out of the subscription and sell it individually at a premium ?

Mediavast has fought the market share battle already, bradding images in exchange for exposure. Getty does not need to brand itself anymore. So why keep to low pricing ? Or are some of the Getty executives asleep at the wheel ?

There is more photographers now at red carpet event than there has ever been. Why is that, Getty ? Shouldn’t you be in such a strong position by now that no one would even consider competing ? Its is the opposite, it has become more crowded . And every photographer, almost, is double, triple dipping, giving his material to two or three different small agencies to hopefully maximize their chances to sell.

So, again, what is going on in the heads of the corporates ? Brain freeze ? is the Corbis virus is spreading ?

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