Two original science documentaries made entirely from Getty Images’ archival and stock collections are headed to YouTube following an alliance with Little Dot Studios.
The docs, produced by All3Media-owned Little Dot Studios, will feature images and videos sourced from Getty Images’ extensive archive. They kick off an ongoing content commitment between the two companies, and mark the first time a YouTube original has been made entirely with Getty Images licensed visual content.
Moons of our Solar System, launching tomorrow (December 12), is a 90-minute special that will be made available across Little Dot Studios’ YouTube science offering—Spark, Progress and Cosmic. German- and Spanish-language versions will follow.
“This collaboration with Little Dot Studios demonstrates how Getty Images’ depth of content can power premium, long-form storytelling for digital platforms”, said Paul Davis, VP of media and broadcast sales at Getty Images. “By combining our entire Getty Images video collection with flexible, digital-first licensing models, we’re making it easier for producers to create high-quality programs with speed, creative freedom, and full rights certainty. Little Dot Studios has been an outstanding partner, and we’re excited to see how YouTube audiences engage with this new approach to documentary production.”
Little Dot Studios tapped into audience insights from its extensive YouTube 200-plus-channel network—reaching more than 125 million unique viewers monthly to lead the creative direction. The research team at Getty Images used those insights to select assets from its footage collection.
Alex Hryniewicz, managing director for network social platforms at Little Dot Studios, added: “Our digital network gives us unparalleled, real-time insights into what audiences are passionate about. This partnership with Getty Images is a perfect example of how we can turn those data-led insights into premium, original programming. By combining our understanding of YouTube with Getty’s incredible, world-class archive, we can create compelling documentaries like Moons of our Solar System that are tailor-made for the platform and will resonate deeply with our viewers.”
Getty Images is home to 34 million footage clips, with almost 20 million in 4K, as well as offline archives of BBC programming and NBC News.
