Getting programmes from the archive?

How would I go about this? Say if I wanted to request a programme from a BBC archive, but it was just, say a high resolution clip of the title sequence? Would this be possible?

I doubt you could. If you were involved in a particular programme in some way or another, you can request a copy from the BBC and for a small fee they'll do it for you. So unless you're a Production company that's making a programme that needs a particular clip and you have money, there's not much chance.

I take it what you're looking for isn't easily available or on YouTube?

Back in the day (about 25 years ago) I wrote to the BBC asking if they could send me just exactly the same thing.

I received a lovely reply, politely declining on the grounds that it would cost some hundreds of pounds in man hours to put together such a compilation, not to mention copyright implications, and as such, they couldn't oblige.

Can't imagine things having changed much, but it only costs a stamp to ask.

Small fee? Cost of a licence fee on its own more like.



Bit overkill for just a title sequence!
Can anybody justify £103.50? I suppose realistically the service is tailored to production companies and what not to whom £103 is like water off a duck's back.

But who would I need to ask specifically? Is there an address for such a request?

I requested for a copy of an MOM episode from ITV1 and they charged £297

Best offer I got was from BBC scotland £30 and my own VHS tape:

Its would cost at least £300 to get something like this.

To be honest if you addressed it to "BBC Television", and opened with "Dear Sirs", it would end up in the right department eventually.

Call and ask for the address for BBC Information & Archives.

While we're on the subject, apologies if this has been mentioned. It seems the Monkhouse family are going to be opening up Bob's own archive of clips and films http://www.kaleidoscope.org.uk raising money for the Prostate Cancer Research Fund. Some great previews on that site including recording of edition of Bob's Full House where he was asked to change his shirt and tie to convince viewers a week had passed!

How I'd love to see that. Sadly all tickets have been allocated now and it's a private members club but anyway.

Wasn't there something mentioned a few months back about the BBC putting thousands of hours of archive content up online?

(And a quick look around finds https://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/Index.aspx - don't know if it's accessible to the general public or if content is online but you can register for free).

I once appeared on the MTV Europe show "Most Wanted" during it's final series in September 1995,
and took a blank VHS tape with me. I asked one of the production team (Shelley IIRC) to if it'd be
possible to get a copy of the show on tape, since the VCR I had at the time was broken.

I thought it'd be a bit of a long shot at best, but low and behold, about a week or so later, the tape
came back in a cushioned envelope, with a clean recording of the original broadcast master copy
of that show, with no on-screen MTV logo. In place of the ad-breaks and music videos was just a
silent feed from one of the main studio cameras of members of the production team milling
about the studio preparing things for the various segments of the show.

It even featured live studio performances by the band that appeared on the show, The Levellers.
In normal circumstances, like making a direct request to MTV, it would've involved all manner
of rights and clearance issues, and quite likely lead to any other request being declined!

The cost to me for this request = the price of one 3hr VHS tape at 1995 prices!

And that is just for a DVD 'viewing copy' not something that a production company would use in their programme. It is an expensive business though. When ordering archive there are a number of things that companies charge for:

1) Research - if you have a vague request and want someone to look it up for you you will pay for that research time. This is the case internally at the BBC too, a programme will pay the archive department for research but everyone has access to the entire catalogue themselves. However the big archives (BBC Motion Gallery, ITN Source, AP etc) have on-line databases so you can look up your own material.

2) Mechanical costs - this is the actual cost of getting the material to you so usually getting the film/tape and transferring it onto a tape/disc or feeding it down a line. This too can be avoided as some libraries can get the clip you've bought to you as a file via FTP. Price does depend on length, and broadcast quality copies cost more hence viewing copies and online browsing is used to select what you want first before ordering the actual footage. As noted above this doesn't normally start under £100, providing your own tape stock can bring the price down quite a bit. One example I saw recently was a short bit of archive from a company in the US, transfer from an old VT format to digibeta and then make a .mov file cost about $250!

3) Footage cost - libraries charge for the amount you use in your programme but normally to a minimum of, say, 30 seconds. So I could order up 5 minutes, use 15 seconds but will have to pay for 30. 30 Seconds could could a couple of hundred £ depending on where you're going to use it (UK only, online, worldwide etc) but someone like ITN Source will let you use it for 5 years (i.e. if your programme gets repeated)

For an idea of cost of footage, this is ITN's new 'clips on demand' service which is a simple 'one price' way of getting footage (although the range is limited): http://www.itnsource.com/clipsondemand/

Costs vary of course, a regular customer can buy x number of minutes cheaper in advance and then they just need to declare what they've used.... however the mechanical costs still apply.