Great news arrived at PAN this afternoon – a photo collection purchase!
Congratulations to BSR photo agency in the Netherlands who just acquired the fantastic football collection Pics United.
This important archive contains nearly 50 years (1966 – 2016) of unique international soccer history – and the most important image sets are already digitised. This one million image collection purchase places BSR Agency as one of the most complete and extensive soccer collections in The Netherlands. PAN is looking forward to seeing some of the unseen gems in this archive soon.
The acquisition includes the acclaimed archive of photographer Cor Mooij, with comprehensive content from his time as club photographer for AZ Alkmaar and his work during various European and World Cups, including those in 1974, 1978 and 1988.
• The Pics United collection will be available on the BSR platform from April 1. …yep, this is no April fool!
BSR Agency CEO Sven Hoogerhuis told PAN: “After acquiring various entertainment and royalty collections over the past two years, the acquisition of this soccer archive creates great added value to BSR Agency’s strategic position in the content market. We are impressed by the quality of this unique archive. It offers us the opportunity to immediately integrate years of production capacity into our collection and allows us to accelerate and increase the implementation of that capacity in other areas vital to us.”
Freddy Leenders, General Manager Sports & News BSR Agency says: “During my twenty years as a professional in the photography market, I have come across the Pics United archive in various capacities. Each time I was impressed by its quality, in terms of both content and user-friendliness. The innovative commercial approach to soccer photography was second to none. When I was asked to advise on the possibility of taking over this archive, a positive recommendation was easily given. For us, this is a unique opportunity to directly own a high-quality archive of soccer history, which has not been available to the market in recent years. ”
Bob van den Cruijsem of Pics United says: “Pics United has been a worldwide household name for many years and I am proud of that! I recognize in BSR Agency the core values that we have always held high. That is why they are the right choice to make the historical archive stand out on its own, so that the Pics United brand lives on. ”
Read more BSR on PAN