Email sent to Getty Images contributors in January 2025 about news of planned merger with Shutterstock. Picture: Shutterstock/Hadrian
The $3.7bn merger of rival image providers Getty and Shutterstock could lead to a “substantial lessening of competition” in the editorial market in the UK, a watchdog has warned.
This would include time sensitive pictures and videos from major breaking news events, red carpets and other celebrity moments, and sporting events, as well as archive content of newsworthy people and events.
The Competition and Markets Authority said, however, it had no concerns on the impact of the deal on the global supply of stock images licensed for commercial purposes by, for example, advertisers – something done by Getty via Getty Images and iStock, as well as Shutterstock.
This is is in part because of the growth of generative AI to produce stock imagery as well as the fact there are major competitors such as Adobe and Canva in the market.
The competition body has now invited comments on its interim finding ahead of making a final ruling on whether the deal can go ahead in its current form.
Getty and Shutterstock, which are both listed in the US but have substantial operations in the UK, announced their plan to merge in January 2025 . They said the benefits would include a bigger content library for customers, more opportunities for contributors, and more ability for them to invest in product development and innovation including in generative AI.
But the CMA expressed concerns that the deal could result in higher subscription costs for UK news outlets. The deal is currently on hold while an investigation takes place.
The regulator said Getty was the “clear UK market leader in editorial content”, with customers seeing it as “strong” on archive, entertainment, news and sports content, and would be combining with one of a small number of rivals.
Once merged with Shutterstock, which the CMA said was seen as “having a good offering across all content types” but which particularly competes with Getty on entertainment images, the new business would supply “close to or above” half of the UK market.
“Barriers to entry and expansion are high and we have not seen evidence of likely entry or expansion by rival suppliers in the next few years,” the CMA said.
Rivals cited in the analysis included newswires PA Media Group (which includes PA and Alamy), the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as paparazzi and entertainment providers Splash and Backgrid. Others such as IMAGO and Storyful are “significantly smaller and fill niche gaps”.
The CMA published an interim report on Thursday stating the merger “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the supply of editorial content in the UK, but not in the supply of stock content globally”. It is inviting comments in response to its initial findings by 12 March.
Margot Daly, chair of the independent panel leading the investigation for the CMA, said: “Editorial images – which cover everything from red carpet and celebrity images to pictures and videos of sports or major breaking news events – are used by media outlets, publishers and filmmakers to bring stories to life for UK audiences. Any loss of competition could be strongly felt by these customers.
“Having reviewed a wide range of evidence, our initial view is that this deal could lead to worse outcomes for customers of Getty and Shutterstock’s editorial content in the UK. We welcome views on our initial findings. It’s also open to Getty and Shutterstock to submit a workable solution which would effectively address our provisional concerns.”
Getty said it was “pleased” by the “finding that the merger is not expected to result in competition issues in the global stock content market” but that it disagrees with the editorial concerns.
“We do not believe the analysis or interim conclusions reflect the composition of the UK market, the level of regional competition within it or the alternatives available to customers.”
Getty chief executive Craig Peters, who would lead the post-merger company to be known as Getty Images Holdings Inc, told the Financial Times in November that the group would likely leave parts of the UK market if the deal was blocked by the CMA.
He warned there could be “parts of these businesses that probably don’t continue to invest in the UK. There are pieces of this business that potentially exit [and] ultimately investments that aren’t going to be made.”
The CMA’s interim report found that without the merger both Getty and Shutterstock would “continue to compete broadly as they do now”.
Peters added that the deal would help the businesses compete in a world where AI-generated images can easily be created: “This transaction is about taking a Shutterstock business that is in decline in terms of its licensing revenues and being impacted by AI, combining it with Getty and creating scale. We can’t go buy a Google. We can’t go buy an OpenAI. And so we need to compete in a different way.”
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