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The family were holidaying in British Columbia, Canada, in January 2020, and Markle’s lawyer claims a Splash paparazzo arrived earlier to make ‘a full reconnaissance inspection’ of their private home. One of those cases is a UK privacy lawsuit with The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, over photos captured during ‘a private family outing in a remote rural setting and that there was no public interest in the photographs’. ‘This situation has been exacerbated by two ongoing litigation cases and the costs of defending these cases.’ ‘As a consequence of the global pandemic the availability of celebrity images has declined and budgets within media companies have been cut to reflect wider macro-economic challenges,’ Curzon said. ‘Splash News president, Emma Curzon, stated the financial issues leading to a default on a loan worth nearly US$1 million stem from three sources. Here’s an excerpt from Inside Imaging‘s report:

SilverHub Media, started by former Getty Images senior executives, went bankrupt two years later and Splash News was ‘saved’ by new owners.Īnd then, in 2021, Splash News reportedly filed for bankruptcy due to the Covid-19 pandemic keeping celebrities in doors, and numerous costly legal battles including a UK privacy lawsuit filed by Meghan Markle. Splash News was sold by its founders, Kevin Smith and Gary Morgan, to Bill Gates-owned stock agency, Corbis, in 2011, which then passed Splash to SilverHub Media in 2016. ‘Splash’s vast collection provides a chronicle of some of the most iconic moments from the last three decades – from images of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin’s 2014 wedding in Venice, to photographs of “Bennifer” from when they dated in 2002.’

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The Newsroom will now host an archive of over 30 million images, with a live feed of 40,000 images uploaded per day from a network of over 4000 photographers. A less verbose version could simply be ‘paparazzi agency’.įor Shutterstock the acquisition ‘solidifies Shutterstock Editorial’s Newsroom offering as the premium destination for its global customers for unparalleled access to premium exclusive content. A leading source for image and video content across celebrity, red carpet and live events for over three decades’. Shutterstock’s description of Splash is ‘one of the world’s leading entertainment news networks for newsrooms and media companies. Splash News has been around since 1990, and supposedly has a network of 4000 contributing photographers. Shutterstock has by comparison lacked in the editorial department, and the Splash acquisition is an attempt to grow this component of the business. But Shutterstock’s greatest rival, Getty Images, has a strong foothold in the editorial photography market. The acquisitions up until now have been to expand the company’s stock content business. The three acquisitions total more than US$405 million. Shutterstock’s is amidst an aggressive corporate strategy to secure growth through acquisitions, having now bought popular video stock agency Pond5, 3D content marketplace TurboSquid, online graphics editor PicMonkey, and others. Shutterstock has acquired paparazzi content agency, Splash News, which adds 27 million editorial images to the archive, throwing down the gauntlet to the Getty Images editorial newsroom.