Indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Getty Images, the imagery company, has signed an agreement with Visage Media Services to exclusively represent Getty Images creative collections in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives. This agreement according to Getty Images marks the beginning of a new era for access to high quality photagraphy in India.

Previously, the Getty Images collections had been available to clients in these markets from the Getty Images Singapore office.

"A key focus for us this year is accelerating international growth particularly in non-English speaking markets," said Getty Images VP agents and emerging markets Andrew Booth, "With this in mind, we have been looking carefully at our strategy for India. As one of the top 20 countries worldwide by advertising expenditure and one of the top 10 highest growth countries worldwide, India's strategic importance and potential is a great long-term opportunity for Getty Images, so it was key that we built our presence in this market."

The company also stated that the best way to do this was to partner with a local company, and expressed their confidence levels about Visage Media Services who they believe would drive their business forward in this region.

There are also plans in place for the Visage team to build local content for India, working with the creative team from Getty Images to create imagery that meets clients' local and international requirements.

"We are delighted to partner with Getty Images," says Visage Media Services CEO Srini Kilambi. "We feel confident that offering creative clients in the Indian region the opportunity to license the world's most comprehensive collection of quality imagery from a local partner will make their job far easier."

Visage Media Services will license all Getty Images creative stills collections, including the award-winning collection Stone, along with The Image Bank, Taxi and Photodisc.