Partnership with SmartFrame Technologies Ltd will allow 26 million images to be embedded for non-commercial purposes
London – 18 May 2020: Motorsport Images, part of the Motorsport Network and the world’s largest photo agency specializing in motorsport and automotive content, today announces a new partnership with SmartFrame Technologies Ltd that will open its extensive archive to non-commercial users.
The company has adopted the SmartFrame platform to bring free, licensed access to its image library, which currently numbers over 26 million images. Initially available to bloggers, the new licensing model will allow users to share images from the collection on their channels through a simple embedding mechanism.
With its exhaustive catalog dating back to 1895, Motorsports Images’ vast collection extends from the dawn of the motor car through to Ayrton Senna and Sir Stirling Moss, right up to today’s Formula One and Formula E championships, in addition to Moto GP, WRC and NASCAR.
“Motorsport Images provides extensive cover to many of the leading global editorial platforms, as well as numerous automotive manufacturers and advertisers,” explains James Claydon, Managing Director of Motorsport Images. “With motorsports being one of the most popular sporting pastimes, our content is also incredibly popular with individuals such as bloggers whose individual passion is following and writing about their interest in motorsport. These individuals represent such an integral part of maintaining and driving fan engagement, but our traditional licensing model isn’t always appropriate and often leads to the use of unlicensed, lower-quality copies of our images found elsewhere online. Working with SmartFrame, we are now able to offer these non-commercial users access to genuine, high-resolution images from our image library for free, which is something we are incredibly excited about.”
Rob Sewell, CEO of SmartFrame Technologies, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Motorsport Images, and helping to address the needs of bloggers in obtaining high-quality, genuine content. Furthermore, by allowing an image-rights owner like Motorsport Images to control the use of its content, sharing of its images becomes a new advertising-based revenue stream. SmartFrame is able to stream additional content layers, such as contextually relevant adverts, offers and messages about events, directly into those shared images, which turns every one of those images into a digital advertising board.”
SmartFrame’s technology, which enables image-rights owners to translate traffic and engagement into a new revenue channel, is predicated on an image-streaming principle that prevents unauthorised image copying or downloading. This allows organizations such as Motorsport Images to provide genuine, high-resolution images for non-commercial purposes without cost, in exchange for allowing relevant offers and ads to be delivered directly into those images. Claydon concludes: “This has the potential to be a game-changer – not just for Motorsport Images, but for image licensing.”
How to get access to Motorsport Images’ archive
Bloggers interested in using images from the Motorsport Images archive can register for a free account at https://www.motorsportimages.com/register/ and select the ‘Blogger’ category to gain access.
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About Motorsport Images
Motorsport Images is the world’s richest and most extensive motorsport and automotive photo collection, with a full-service photographic agency and a presence at all major international motor racing events. Motorsport Images is part of the Motorsport Network, which is a global market leader; an integrated digital platform that is the destination for everything cars and racing. It sits at the heart of the automotive and racing industries, offering a global community of hundreds of millions of fans the inside track, telling tomorrow’s stories today and delivering experiences no one else can. Its motorsport platform is the world’s largest, serving 15 languages, while its automotive platform is in 9 languages, with a fast-growing EV network.
About SmartFrame Technologies Ltd
Founded in 2015, SmartFrame Technologies Ltd is a London-based software provider whose aim is to redefine the digital image standard for the benefit of photographers, visual artists and organizations. Through its SmartFrame platform, the company has a global footprint of clients and partners using its technology to protect, track, control, present and monetise their content.
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