So how should I price my items?

By Boaz Eshtai on July 30, 2009

Over the past 16 years I have closely watched the transition that the industry has made in the way news, current affairs and archive are evaluated and priced.

Today it is difficult to sell news items exclusively when the price tag can range from $10,000 to $500,000. With advertising revenues shrinking, broadcasters and online publishers can hardly afford these 'old days' prices anymore.

Archive items, on the other hand, used to be sold for a relatively low cost up until the end of the 80s. Then, the big archive sources such as APTN, Reuters and ITN began considering their bank of items as one of their most valuable assets. As a result, by the early 90s, archive prices increased tremendously.

As lone cameramen, we also have to adapt to new pricing structures and the principles that drive them. Whether it's daily news or archive, the best solution for individual cameramen, photographers and production companies (and the people that pay them) is to maintain copyrights, and sell the items many times at a lower price. The price may be lower, but the value (income!) goes up.

let’s take a real life example: the popular "Battle at Kruger" video.

The incredible story of a young Buffalo caught between a pride of lions and a crocodile, then rescued by its herd was filmed by David "Buzz" Budzinski and the photographs were taken by Jason Schlosberg. As of today this clip has been viewed over 45,000,000 times .

This video was uploaded onto YouTube with no copyrights restrictions.

I suspect that very few broadcasters would have paid $10,000 to have exclusive rights to broadcast it on the day. However, ‘all or nothing’ are no longer the only options. In today's reality, if this item was priced around $25, with the copyrights held by the owners, I am convinced that 500 broadcasters and online publishers (big and small) would have bought it for broadcast. And since the owner would have maintained his copyright, with archive prices climbing, this item could have been sold for $200 over and over, thus earning the cameraman over $12,500 from that one item.

Boaz Eshtai

Co-Founder, Beamups