COUNTRY: UK STARTED: 2022 ORCHARD CLIPS
What’s your origin story? My name is Luke Smedley, Orchard Clips CEO. Orchard Clips was born over a coffee. A mutual friend introduced me to the CEO of OR Media, an award- winning production company that’s been making documentaries focused on the Middle East for 30 years. Over lockdown, he had an opportunity to take stock and realised he was sitting on a valuable archive of footage, but with no idea how to monetise it. I’ve been working in commercial archives for nearly 20 years, so our mutual friend connected us. I immediately saw the potential. Interest in the Middle East is growing around the world. From geopolitics to business and sport, Middle Eastern countries are becoming increasingly influential. But, it’s notoriously difficult for content creators to acquire footage – whether that’s from broadcasters within the region, or shooting their own content. Between the OR Media archive and strong links we have to media organisations in the region, we could create the definitive source of footage from and about the Middle East. This would be invaluable for content producers across traditional broadcast, as well as the ever-expanding SVOD, AVOD and OTT markets. I’m firmly of the belief that investing in good technology is critical. So, getting in a strong tech partner was an early priority. We are working with AI pioneers Veritone, who are providing our platform as well as automated metadata generation and translations. What is the company working on right now? We’ve just had our commercial launch and have over 10,000 clips online. We’re finalising a new collection, which will bolster our offering. What is the next step? OR Media is working on a slate of documentaries that take a behind- the-scenes look at Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme. They’ve got amazing access to projects transforming the country, from The Line – a zero-emission smart city over 170km long but only 200m wide – to habitat restoration projects regreening deserts. We’ll work with OR Media to make this exclusive footage available to customers worldwide. These are some of the most ambitious projects in the world – and the footage is breathtaking! What one thing does the business need most? We are already working to open the archives of a number of broadcasters and publishers across the Middle East. But we’re always looking to take on, promote and monetise other video collections. If you have a collection of quality footage – no matter how large or small – get in contact to discuss how we can work together.
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