The five-year deal will start from 1 January 2017 for use in AP’s global news agency services, and the company believes that by having such content it can provide clients with additional depth and breadth of news coverage of UK events.

ITN will also license a range of AP’s news and entertainment content across all formats, having access to all AP video, photo and text news as well as archive content, for use within its news and current affairs programming for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. AP’s content will also be accessed by ITN Productions for inclusion in long-form programming as well as within its expanding digital production business.

AP will continue to license Sky News’ coverage. It adds that such a combined offering of ITN and Sky’s content is set to provide AP’s clients with unparalleled depth on UK news stories. “ITN’s decision to expand its relationship with AP is testimony to the expertise of our editorial team who produce fast and accurate coverage of every story making the headlines worldwide,” said Daisy Veerasingham, AP’s senior vice president for revenue, international. “At the same time, being able to bolster our existing UK news coverage with content from ITN is incredibly important, particularly at a time when the UK looks set to feature so prominently within the international news agenda for many years to come.”

Added ITN CEO John Hardie: “We are delighted that AP will be offering ITN content as part of its global news services demonstrating the breadth, depth and quality of footage that our newsrooms produce day in day out.” The move also comes after ITN appointed Getty Images as exclusive global distributor of its video archive.