United Press International Television News , abbreviated as UPITN , was a television news agency, operating from 1967 to 1985. It was the successor to earlier UPI television news film operations United Press Movietone and United Press International Newsfilm . It was at the forefront of international television newsgathering and had a vast network of foreign bureaus around the world with film crews capturing images of the events and people that defined the era.
22-437: United Press International Television News and Visnews were the two largest and most important television news agencies at the time. In 1985, after UPI sold its interest, it was renamed Worldwide Television News , or WTN . In 1998 WTN was bought out by the ' Associated Press ', to become Associated Press Television News . The agreement between United Press and Fox-Movietone to shoot newsfilm for television stations
44-491: A Rank Laboratory. The founder shareholder broadcasters were the ABC (Australia), the BBC , CBC (Canada) CYBC (Cyprus) and NZBC (New Zealand). Its main competitor for the early part of its existence was UPITN (later Worldwide Television News, WTN; this was taken over in 1998 by APTV, to form Associated Press Television News or APTN). By 1992, Visnews was owned by NBC News (37.75%),
66-696: A coherent online text database. The films themselves are being cleaned and restored by Éclair Laboratoires of Paris, and then transferred onto high definition videotape for use by professional producers. Visnews Visnews was a London-based international news agency. It began as the British Commonwealth International Newsfilm Agency (BCINA), which was setup with help from The Rank Organisation when that company closed its cinema newsreel operation. The original headquarters in School Road, Acton, London NW10, had formerly been
88-458: A full satellite uplink are able to use the local agency bureaux. AP has a department called "AP360" which specialises in providing on site production and transmission facilities either through the AP bureaux infrastructure or at breaking or set-piece news events. APTN managed to get a satellite dish and transmission gear into Banda Aceh , Indonesia , following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake before
110-546: A network of local bureaux by the agencies means that local staff with expert knowledge are on hand to capture footage in places where Western camera crews could be in danger. An example of this is the Kosovo War in Serbia during which most journalists left the country prior to the NATO bombing campaign. In addition, TV reporters who often do not have the budgets or expertise to carry with
132-617: Is a global video news agency operated by The Associated Press (AP). AP Television News is the video division of the Associated Press . It provides many of the world's broadcasters with a round-the-clock continuous feed of news, sports, entertainment and feature video content. Associated Press Television News Ltd. is a UK corporation owned and controlled by the Associated Press. Headquartered in North London , AP Television News
154-520: The BBC as its first European client. In 1958, an auxiliary service, originally called UPI Audio , was created to make newsmaker and reporter audio from the film service available to UPI radio clients. On 30 September 1963 UPI and Movietone ended their partnership. Movietone briefly stayed in the theatrical newsreel field while UPI set up a new corporate entity, UPI-Newsfilm (UPIN) , with headquarters in London and New York. UPIN took on staff cameramen around
176-534: The APTN name and logo was dropped in favour of "AP Television News", featuring the red AP logo of the Associated Press to emphasise its connection to the AP. As of 2023, the APTN abbreviation is not officially used, but many broadcasters still refer to the organisation as APTN. AP distributes video to its client broadcasters around the world, mostly by satellite and streaming. Many major broadcasters and networks rely heavily upon The AP for major breaking news from around
198-663: The APTN video feed by local terrestrial circuits, known as "local ends," via the BT Tower .) Video news agencies such as AP, and its main competitors AFP TV and Reuters Video News, typically do not produce programmes that TV owners could watch. Rather, they provide footage of an event with only natural sound and very loose editing. However, AP does also produce a range of entertainment and special interest programmes that are provided as white-label products for client use. Agency customers, who are local and national TV stations, documentary producers, cable television news channels, and
220-476: The BBC (11%) and Reuters ; Reuters bought out the others' shareholdings in the company that year. In 1993 it changed its name to Reuters Television and its operations were absorbed into Reuters' global operations. Visnews was one of two major independent television news suppliers, the other being WTN. At its peak, Visnews supplied international news material to 400 broadcasters globally. In its early days, distribution
242-532: The UK and US. The text catalogue is essential as it identifies what footage is held in each film can and without it, the archive has been virtually inaccessible since the day the films were first produced. Twenty-thousand film cans containing 3,500 hours of international news footage have been lying dormant for decades deep underground in the Central London bunker. AP Archive assembled a team of archival researchers to create
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#1732851405471264-471: The agencies, and on rare occasions footage shot by the public (such as the famous footage of the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde outside Paris and the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 , which ditched off the Comoro Islands in 1996) Footage shot with broadcast-quality cameras is preferred, but quality can sometimes come second to content or immediacy for an exclusive story. The maintenance of
286-455: The company to Associated Press Television News (APTN). The copyright to the UPIN/UPITN archive is held by Associated Press Television News , which acquired WTN. It is managed through APTN's stock footage licensing division, AP Archive . Although the films themselves have been well preserved, the numerous pieces of text catalogue that accompanied them were scattered across various locations in
308-654: The like, edit the agency footage to suit their style, and add their own graphics and voice-overs before transmission. The premise for a video news agency is simple: very few TV stations devote enough money to newsgathering to put hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of camera, editing, and satellite transmission equipment everywhere that news might happen. Video news agencies provide rapid response coverage and international reach for those TV stations. The agency obtains footage from their own camera crews, arrangements with local TV broadcasters to redistribute their material, material shot by freelancers who sell their footage to
330-453: The region was closed to air traffic. This became just about the only live video feed point available for the world's media, and was used extensively by network reporters for transmitting their recorded reports, or going "live" on air into their news and bulletins. Wherever viewers see the same footage on more than one news station, the chances are that it came either from or via a video news agency. There has been little published research into
352-620: The world, very often former Movietone staff, now on the UPI payroll. The client list continued to expand as new stations around the world commenced broadcasting. UPI, having broken away from Movietone, believed it essential to team up with another major partner. The pressure to find a big client/partner increased when UPIN lost its BBC contract. ITN was the obvious choice, but it took four years before UPI actually joined with ITN to form UPITN in June 1967. The company entered its most prolific decade. UPI, however,
374-437: The world. The company also provides specialised broadcast services to clients, via its AP360 operation, such as editing, crewing or satellite feeds from news and sports events. Historical footage is also made available from its extensive film and video archives, which date back to 1895. It includes the film and video archives of onetime AP rival UPI 's longtime newsfilm service United Press International Television News , which
396-469: Was announced on July 13, 1948. United Press Movietone, or UPMT, was pioneering in providing a dedicated newsfilm service to television stations in the United States. UPMT introduced crucial innovations and procedures that became intrinsic to the business of motion picture newsgathering for television. UPMT grew steadily and became the first television news agency to operate on a truly international level with
418-637: Was founded in 1994 as Associated Press Television or APTV. They moved to their present headquarters in 1999 when APTV bought out competitor Worldwide Television News (WTN) and hired Roberto FE Soto as their first NYC Bureau Chief. The WTN building and facilities located at 1995 Broadway were deemed more suitable than the existing AP headquarters and Soto redesigned the newsroom, where APTN NY stayed until AP moved their operations to W 33 street in New York City , and later to 200 Liberty Street in New York City in 2017, where they remain. Since its rebranding in 2005,
440-657: Was mainly through shipped film and electronically via the Eurovision News Exchange. Later there were ad-hoc satellite news feeds, and in 1975 it started the world's first daily satellite news service, to the Australian broadcasters. Visnews was also one of the first suppliers of news production to British Sky Broadcasting for its Sky News channel, commencing its contract in 1989. Associated Press Television News Associated Press Video , also referred to as AP Video and AP Television News (abbreviated APTN ),
462-550: Was plagued by financial difficulties that had negative consequences for UPITN. In the early eighties, UPITN was acquired by ABC (the American Broadcasting Company) which shared ownership with ITN (London's Independent Television News). Australia's Nine Network owned 10% of the network, which was renamed Worldwide Television News (WTN). In the early nineties, ABC purchased another 30% of the company from ITN. The Disney Company acquired ABC in 1995 and in 1998, resold
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#1732851405471484-637: Was the original agency that became WTN. AP Video is based in North London (in a former gin warehouse on the Regent's Canal called "The Interchange" because its original function was to interchange freight between the canal and rail systems) with bureaus in 85 cities and 79 nations, including New York City , Washington D.C. , Paris , Rome and Moscow ; as well as current-event regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan . It uses fibre-optic and satellite-based distribution networks to relay video footage to TV networks and newsrooms . (Broadcasters based in London receive
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