In 2015 a 15-second clip of a rat hauling a slice of pizza down a subway stairwell had 2,600 views. According to Digiday, a company called FailArmy bought the rights to it right about then. The clip has since passed 11 million.
That was not luck. It was the job. A handful of companies spend their days scanning uploads for footage that has not caught fire yet, tracking down whoever shot it, and buying the rights before the numbers move. Then they license the clip onward to advertisers, to television, to anyone who wants a real moment without the risk of using something they do not own. Cleared, legal and safe for brands is the entire sales pitch.
The volume is larger than it sounds. According to Variety, Jukin Media — the Los Angeles company behind FailArmy, The Pet Collective and People Are Awesome — licensed more than 2,000 clips into ad campaigns and onto TV and digital properties in nearly 100 countries in 2020 alone.
The trade runs on a quirk of copyright. The rights belong to whoever pressed record, so the licensing company negotiates with the bystander holding the phone. The person in the video, the one everybody is watching, has no rights at all. Jukin has said it paid more than $30 million to the people who supplied its clips.
In August 2021 Jukin itself was sold, and the buyer came out of print: Trusted Media Brands, publisher of Reader's Digest, Taste of Home and Family Handyman. Terms were not disclosed, though Forbes reported the all-cash deal valued Jukin at more than $100 million.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
