Until recently, licensed stock footage was viewable only in static, flat files on the Web. Anticipating the imminent proliferation of broadband technology into millions of businesses and homes, several major players are scrambling to buy up, consolidate and digitize film libraries to capitalize on rapidly emerging markets and service a huge cross-section of clients -- agencies, film studios, corporations, TV networks, publishers and Web content creators. And with the ongoing transformation of the industry, some foresee footage agencies starting to actively direct what images are sought for creative use rather than simply passively filling orders for specific needs.

Getty Images, the world's largest and most established stock footage and still photography company, acquired Energy Film in 1997 and The Image Bank in 1999, forming an integrated new brand, GettyOne.

"There's now a tremendous emerging market for rich, sophisticated motion imagery to enhance communications on the Web," says Dana Tower, vice-president of marketing and emerging market development, GettyOne Motion Brands and Products. "Rapidly developing streaming technology is having as profound an impact on the Web as cable had on TV. The creative bar is being raised as organizations strive to create the most compelling ads or messages possible."

GettyOne has digitized all of its Image Bank stock and its Energy Film assets will be completed soon. Globally, Tower foresees the company's annual 100--150 million stock footage licenses doubling or tripling over the next few years.

"Our most valued customers --- agency creatives --- generally don't go online because they are so busy," says Tower. "So that's why we're building a business-to-business customer relations management model into our Web offering so that migration is accomplished more effectively, supporting easy transfer of images online. As bandwidth capabilities continue to grow, our customers, who work under intense deadline and budget pressures, will be able to work all that much faster."

On the consumer side, as TV and PCs converge over the next few years, and high-speed access and video on demand become a reality, Tower sees high-income homes equipped with broadband technology being targeted with direct marketing techniques. About 90 percent of PCs now have streaming capabilities and within two years, 33 percent of homes will be Web TV--enabled.

With these revolutionary changes in technology, stock footage is no longer perceived negatively by industry creatives, observes Rick Wysocki, senior vice-president of GettyOne Motion Brands and Products.

"Quality directors who wouldn't dream of shooting stock footage five years ago are now starting to do it," says Wysocki. "It makes sense because directors work for hire. By shooting stock, they can take advantage of their talents and earn more money over the long run."

Since the launch of the Getty Website, TV networks are using its libraries even more than their commercial counterparts for such things as station identification and special programming, says Jennifer Burak, vice-president, national film sales.

Using key-word tools, customers can search the Website themselves or brainstorm directly with the company, who can provide clipboards of creative ideas. Soon the company will be able to e-mail virtual viewing files to customers.

Getty's clients range across several media industries. For example, MTV2 recently ordered 50 images off the GettyOne Website for its hourly showing of music videos in alphabetical order. HBO enhanced its promotional lead-in to Sex and the City by purchasing background shots of New York City from The Image Bank. When JWT Denver urgently needed some new visual elements to add to an edit of a Ford Dealers' spot to meet a next-day deadline, they were able to download the images from the Getty site within hours.

For the new feature film Bedazzled starring Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser, 20th Century Fox licensed 80 time-lapse images from The Image Bank and Energy Film library for the trailer and opening sequences. Toronto agency Bensimon Byrne D'Arcy used Getty images that contrasted Canadian and American culture for the award-winning Molson Canadian spot, "The Rant."

eMotion, a digital media management technology company that acts as distributor for several licensed content Websites, last January acquired FOOTAGE.net, which has been on-line since 1994. Described as "the Yahoo of stock footage" with 3.2 million individual records from over 30 different suppliers --- including CNN, NBC and The Image Bank --- FOOTAGE.net now pulls 125,000--150,000 users monthly, including studios, publishers, agencies, networks and corporations.

This fall, eMotion is launching an e-commerce version of FOOTAGE.net with a natural language search capability and online delivery. Users can not only punch in key words but broad concepts like "adolescent angst" or specific images such as "a woman running on a sandy beach" to pull up the broadest possible number of creative choices. Representative video clips are streamed to the user, who can click on key frames in order of relevance.

"Normally, it takes days to compile clips on a VHS tape and courier it to the customer," says Bob Bender, vice-president, content community, for eMotion. "We're vastly improving the accessing and delivery of stock footage from days and weeks down to days and hours."

This year, FOOTAGE.net acquired Film Images Paris, Film Images London and StormStock, a quality collection of hurricane, tornado and storm footage. The Olympic Television Archive joined the network in September.