When Calgarian entrepreneur Bruce Livingstone began iStockPhoto in April of 2000, offering photographers a chance to sell their images with "micropayments" of as little as $5 a pop, he set in motion a pricing model that revolutionized the stock photo industry. And while he entered the footage fray a bit later than others with iStockVideo (ShutterStock and Pond5 provided similar offerings prior to iStockVideo's September launch), he says it was important to take the time to get it right.

"For us to get into footage, there were two big decision factors - making sure that we did it correctly and were going to offer a good product, and also having a good base of suppliers for videos and animations who would produce things well for broadcast and the web," says Livingstone, noting the mix of prosumers and traditional and flash animators signals a good start.

With clips starting at $5 and HD clips starting at $20, he says smaller prodcos and agencies as well as non-profits are natural focus areas for now. Still, a customer is a customer and with the advent of user-generated content, affordable clips may make their presence felt sooner rather than later. With Getty Images having bought iStockPhoto last February for a cool $50 million, it's apparent that the new age of acquisition will incorporate the micropayment model, as larger companies strive to offer products at a variety of price points.

iStockVideo http://ockphoto.com/video.php