Newsplayer is a streaming video website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

 of historical news footage

Footage

In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...

.
The service provides online access to newsreel

Newsreel

A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...

 video clips and television news reports spanning the last 100 years. The online digital archive features over 14,000 video clips of licensed material from the libraries of ITN, Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

, Pathe News

Pathe News

Pathé Newsreels were produced from 1910 until the 1970s, when production of newsreels was in general stopped. Pathé News today is known as British Pathé and its archive of over 90,000 reels is fully digitised and online.-History:...

 and EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

Background

Newsplayer allows users to browse and retrieve video clips by keyword, topic or year. The Newsplayer library includes news footage of key moments in history from the 20th Century from 1896 to the present day. Videos are streamed on demand via Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

 progressive download.

Company history

First launched in October 1999. Newsplayer broadcast Paramount News

Paramount News

Paramount News is the name on the newsreels produced by Paramount Pictures .-History:The Paramount Newsreel began operation in 1927 and distributed roughly two movie theater issues per week until their closing in 1957. Movie theaters across the country would run these issues, usually on 35mm...

, Pathe News, ITN and Reuters video archive to users on a subscription based model.
Original board members of the Newsplayer group included co-founder Paul Duffen

Paul Duffen

Paul Jeremy Duffen is the ex-chairman of Hull City A.F.C. and was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Media Group plc , where other board members included Sir David Frost and Steven Smith...

 (the ex chairman of Hull City

Hull City A.F.C.

Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...

 association football club) and Steven Smith. Original directors also included Sir David Frost who granted Newsplayer access to his onscreen interview archive spanning four decades

In 2008 Newsplayer was acquired by Niall Donnelly

Niall Donnelly

Niall Donnelly is an Irish entrepreneur and principal of Arrogant LLC which is based in Los Angeles, California. He is owner of several nightclubs and Rock n Roll bars in London and has built a name for himself both sides of the Atlantic as a major force in the entertainment, media and nightlife...

 and Brendan Morrissey.

Development

On December 8, 2008, Newsplayer beta was re-launched as a free to view video streaming website. The company announced on their website that a fully featured version of Newsplayer is planned for January 2009.
The company is currently expanding its video archive by forming alliances with media and technology partners, alongside its current license with ITN and Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

which allows Newsplayer ongoing access to new material.