Stock video service VideoBlocks today announced that it will soon start selling clips from the Discovery Channel’s Discovery Access library in its recently launched Marketplace.
In total, VideoBlocks will soon feature about 30,000 clips from Discovery that span the range from culture and animal clips to lifestyle and engineering videos.
Chances are Discovery was interested in working with VideoBlocks because of that company’s rather unique model. Because it’s a subscription service with a large library of videos that its users can download as part of their pre-paid subscription, the company doesn’t charge content providers who want to sell their videos in its Marketplace a commission. All of the proceeds go right to the content owner. Because of this, it can typically sell clips cheaper than many of its competitors. Licenses for standard HD clips on VideoBlocks cost $50. 4K videos cost $199.
VideoBlocks CEO and founder Joel Holland tells me that the service currently has about 120,000 paying members that run from TV networks to mainstream creators. The company recently hit its first $1 million in payouts to creators and Holland tells me that sales are currently doubling month over month.
He argues that this helped VideoBlocks get noticed by the likes of Discovery. “Typically, this would go to Getty for high prices,” he said. “Now they are willing to sell in the Marketplace.” Holland also noted that the company is talking to number of other studios to bring their content to his site. He wasn’t ready to name any names just yet, though.
For the time being, VideoBlocks has no plans for bringing any of the Discovery content to its unlimited subscription library.