SAN FRANCISCO — Footage.net has published the results of the Footage Industry Pandemic Industry Survey, which captures a realtime snapshot of how footage companies are responding to the pandemic-related disruptions that began to take hold worldwide in early March. At this stage, it looks like most footage companies, at least in the sample group, have been able to maintain their essential business operations and continue delivering footage to customers.
The 36-page report is available for free to the footage industry (Contact David Seevers, Footage.net’s chief marketing officer at davidwseevers@gmail.com). The survey ran from April 9th to April 19th. Over this period, more than 550 footage companies from around the world were invited to participate. In the end, 67 companies completed the survey over 11 days.
The survey included 16 total questions, the first five of which were demographic in nature and intended to provide context and perspective on the key findings. As a group, the companies that participated are based mainly in the US or the UK. They are, for the most part, mature businesses (ten years or older); and trade predominantly in archival, news and location-based footage.
Many of the key findings in the survey are cautiously optimistic. While footage companies have been disrupted by the pandemic-related shutdowns, they seem to have adjusted to the new business environment quickly, and at this point, the impact on their businesses has not been overwhelmingly negative. Encouragingly, only 12 percent of respondents indicated that the pandemic has “very significantly” affected their footage business.
Most of the key operational functions that were asked - including delivery of footage to customers, managing staff, and access by staff to analog film & tape collections - appear to be relatively unimpeded, meaning that the companies are able to manage their core operations while, for the most part, working remotely.
New inquiries are coming in, and while final sales have slowed for the majority of companies over the last month, this may prove to be a temporary dip as clients reorient themselves and, hopefully, resume their work.
Going forward, only a small percentage (6 percent) expect the pandemic to have a positive effect on their revenues over the next 12 months. 71 percent believe their revenues will either decrease (37 percent), or that it’s “too early to tell” (34 percent).
Most respondents (43 percent) believe it is “too early to tell” whether the pandemic will drive an overall increase in demand for footage. That said, 27 percent believe the pandemic will cause an increased demand for footage, driven primarily by the difficulties in location-based production, which will be offset by increased archival-based production.
Anxieties about future threats to the footage industry are fairly high. When asked about eight different potential threats, fear of a global recession led the pack.