I currently submit video clips to Pond5, but since going exclusive with them about a year or so ago, sales have crashed through the floor. I'm toying with dropping the exclusivity with them and submitting video to other agencies. Do you get many video clip sales through iStock?

Short answer is 'yes', good numbers of video sales on iStock but royalties can be very low. If you get enough sales however, there will be higher commissions which help to bring up the bottom line.

I'd agree - I submit clips to Pond5, SS and Adobe, but because iStock usually seemed to pay very low amounts I used to only submit there the ones that didn't sell much on the other sites - except then I found that iStock often sells different clips and sometimes in much greater numbers, so much that in some cases they outstrip the other sites in returns.

So for me I think they're worth it, especially as my Pond5 and SS seem to have almost completely stalled recently.  But remember iStock don't accept editorial video, so, depending on what you produce, it may not be worthwhile being exclusive there.

Quote from: Gannet77 on May 28, 2026, 08:28

But remember iStock don't accept editorial video, so, depending on what you produce, it may not be worthwhile being exclusive there.

Aaah... That's a bummer. The type of clips I shoot are general local scenes of tourist destinations that may show buildings, shops etc, and I have quite a big folio farming machinery etc, which would be classed as editorial by SS and P5, of which I have no releases.

Quote from: Gannet77 on May 28, 2026, 08:28
So for me I think they're worth it, especially as my Pond5 and SS seem to have almost completely stalled recently.  But remember iStock don't accept editorial video, so, depending on what you produce, it may not be worthwhile being exclusive there.

I think that is the same experience for most on Pond5/SS.

There's no one left to "mind the store" or do any marketing. Most have left and others are waiting to see what happens post Getty/SS/P5 etc merger.

Another question is post-merger what will become of the editorial footage on SS/P5?  Will our editorial content go to iStock or be kept separate on SS/P5 or morph into something else?

Quote from: PCDMedia on May 28, 2026, 16:46

Quote from: Gannet77 on May 28, 2026, 08:28
So for me I think they're worth it, especially as my Pond5 and SS seem to have almost completely stalled recently.  But remember iStock don't accept editorial video, so, depending on what you produce, it may not be worthwhile being exclusive there.

I think that is the same experience for most on Pond5/SS.

There's no one left to "mind the store" or do any marketing. Most have left and others are waiting to see what happens post Getty/SS/P5 etc merger.

Another question is post-merger what will become of the editorial footage on SS/P5?  Will our editorial content go to iStock or be kept separate on SS/P5 or morph into something else?

I don't want to say, but history is, when Getty took over iStock, all my Editorial/News images were deactivated. That's not the same as the editorial because it includes recognizable people or places or trademarks. We'll have to wait and see, but with Getty, don't expect them to keep anything that competes with the Getty Images collections.

For me that just means I'll be virtually an Alamy exclusive for my sports images. Fine, I can also avoid conflicts that way, because everything will be on Alamy and nowhere else.