Getty Images' Q3 2025: Contradictions Emerge on AI Licensing, Creative Segment, and Subscription Retention

Date of Call: November 10, 2025

Financials Results

• Revenue: $240.0M, down 0.2% YOY and down 2% on a currency-neutral basis
• Gross Margin: 73.2%, compared with 73.4% in Q3 2024

Guidance:

• Revenue for full-year 2025 expected $942M–$951M (growth 0.3%–1.2% reported; -0.5%–0.5% currency-neutral)
• Adjusted EBITDA expected $291M–$293M (down 3.0%–2.3% reported; -4.1%–3.3% currency-neutral)
• FX assumptions: EUR 1.12 and GBP 1.32; ~ $6.5M FX benefit to revenue (FY) and ~ $3.5M FX tailwind to EBITDA
• Includes ~ $8M one-off SOX acceleration costs (≈ $2.5M in Q4); excludes merger-related costs from adjusted EBITDA
• Guidance incorporates odd-year editorial calendar comparisons and a slower return of production post-Hollywood strikes

Business Commentary:

• Revenue Performance and AI Integration:
• Getty Images reported revenue of $240 million for Q3, with a 0.2% year-over-year decrease and 2% currency-neutral decrease.

• The decline was due to a difficult editorial compare and ongoing agency customer declines, partially offset by growth in AI data licensing and creative normalization.

• Subscription Revenue Growth:

• Annual subscription revenue was 58.4% of total revenue, up from 52.4% in Q3 of last year, representing 11.2% year-on-year growth.

• Growth was primarily driven by premium access (PA), which makes up over 1/3 of total revenue, up 17% or 15% currency-neutral.

• Creative and Editorial Revenue Trends:

• Creative revenue grew due to normalization of premium access revenue allocations, while editorial revenue decreased due to a tough compare against strong events like the Paris Olympics.
• The agency portion of the creative business continues to decline, reflecting macroeconomic uncertainties and prior year strong editorial event calendar comparisons.

• AI Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships:
• Getty Images saw a downturn in AI data licensing revenue compared to 2024, but formed strategic partnerships for AI Large Language Models and search experiences, indicating future growth potential.
• The company inked deals with Perplexity and leveraged its custom content business to create training materials for AI use cases, enhancing product offerings with authentic, high-quality content.

Sentiment Analysis:

Overall Tone: Neutral

• Management reported flat Q3 revenue ($240M, -0.2% YoY; -2% currency-neutral) and modest Adjusted EBITDA decline ($78.7M, -2.4% reported), highlighted a legal win vs. Stability AI but noted the CMA referral delaying the Getty–Shutterstock merger into 2026; guidance was updated with FX tailwinds but flagged editorial-calendar and production-recovery headwinds.

Q&A:

• Question from Jacob Hallac (Citigroup Inc., Research Division): Can you unpack Getty's key AI initiatives this quarter and how they tie to the overall AI strategy and potential impacts to 2026 revenue? Specifically, structure/benefits of the Perplexity partnership? And on iStock, is bundling AI capabilities into subs driving new customer acquisition, retention or upsell?
  Response: Getty is executing traditional licensing deals with AI platforms (e.g., Perplexity) that could become a material revenue stream; bundling generative-AI features into subscriptions is aimed at increasing customer value and retention, but it’s too early to quantify a lift.

• Question from Jacob Hallac (Citigroup Inc., Research Division): Could you dive deeper into the health of the corporate and media customer segments, and expand on the comment that production hasn't returned to pre-strike levels?
  Response: Media weakness is concentrated in broadcast/production which remains below pre-strike levels; corporate remains the largest, growing segment (~60% of revenue) with enterprise retention near 100% and generally healthy metrics.

• Question from Mark Zgutowicz (The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division): What was premium access subscription retention in 3Q versus 2Q and how does the rest of the subscription business compare?
  Response: They do not disclose premium access retention specifics publicly but said Premium Access has the highest and stable retention among subscription offerings; lower-tier products (iStock, Unsplash) exhibit higher churn as expected.

• Question from Mark Zgutowicz (The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division): Which cohorts drove the sequential recovery in creative and how should we think about fourth-quarter compares (sequentially or year-over-year)?
  Response: Q3 creative upside was roughly half from normalization of premium-access allocation after 2024 events and half from a multiyear deal with significant upfront revenue; agency remains a drag and management expects creative to revert to low single-digit growth in Q4.

Contradiction Point 1

AI Content Licensing and Revenue Impact

It involves differing expectations regarding AI content licensing as a source of revenue, which directly impacts financial forecasts and investor expectations.

What are Getty's key AI initiatives this quarter and how do they align with your overall AI strategy and potential 2026 revenue impact? - Jacob Hallac (Citigroup Inc., Research Division)

2025Q3: We expect AI content licensing to become a material revenue stream. - Craig Peters(CEO)

What's the status of your AI offering and client adoption? - Danny Pfeiffer (JPMorgan)

2025Q1: AI adoption is growing, still in early stages. We're bundling AI into subscriptions, enhancing content modification. It's adding low-single-digit revenue. - Craig Peters(CEO)

Contradiction Point 2

Creative Segment Performance

It reflects differing views on the performance and drivers of the creative segment, which is crucial for understanding revenue trends and growth strategies.

What were the key drivers of the sequential recovery in creative revenue? - Mark Zgutowicz(The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division)

2025Q3: Creative growth was due to a normalization of premium access allocation between creative and editorial. Agency declines persist, impacting creative. - Craig Peters(CEO)

Can you clarify the strength in corporate and media compared to subscription results this quarter? What's expected for the second half of creative and data licensing in your 2025 guidance? - Mark John Zgutowicz(The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division)

2025Q2: Creative decline primarily due to agency challenges. Editorial growth driven by major events but faces tougher comparisons in the second half. - Jennifer Leyden(CFO)

Contradiction Point 3

Subscription Mix and Retention Rate

It involves differing explanations for the trends in subscription mix and retention rates, which are critical for understanding customer engagement and business health.

What are the key drivers behind the increased subscription mix shift and the 93.4% retention rate? What are the strategic differences across jurisdictions and your confidence level in the U.S. litigation against Stability AI? - Unidentified Analyst

2025Q3: Subscription growth driven by e-commerce subscriptions, corporate growth, and premium access. Revenue retention improving due to lapping Hollywood strike impacts and stabilization in smaller e-commerce subscriber counts. - Craig Peters(CEO)

What drove the increase in subscription mix shift and the retention rate rising back to 93.4%? What are the strategic differences across jurisdictions, and what is your confidence level in the U.S. litigation with Stability AI? - Unidentified Analyst(Citigroup)

2025Q2: During Q2'25, we saw improvement in our core subscription retention rate, which increased to 93.4% from 93.2% in Q1'25. Improved subscription retention driven by higher retention in our premium access subscription. - Jennifer Leyden(CFO)

Contradiction Point 4

AI Revenue Impact and Strategy

It involves the expectations and timeline for AI-related revenue growth, which is a strategic focus for the company.

What were Getty's key AI initiatives in Q4 and how do they align with the overall AI strategy and potential 2026 revenue impact? What is the structure and benefits of the Perplexity partnership? Is bundling AI capabilities into subscriptions driving new customer acquisition, retention, or upsells? How are the corporate and media customer segments performing? - Jacob Hallac (Citigroup Inc., Research Division)

2025Q3: We expect AI content licensing to become a material revenue stream. - Craig Peters(CEO)

What is the 2025 revenue growth outlook by segment? What is the expected data licensing revenue over the next 12 months? - Mark Zgutowicz (The Benchmark Company)

2024Q4: Data Licensing is expected to remain at modest levels. - Jenn Leyden(CFO)

Contradiction Point 5

Creative Segment Performance

It highlights differing explanations for the performance of the creative segment, which is a significant part of the company's business.

Which customer segments drove the sequential recovery in creative advertising, and how should we assess Q4 comparisons? - Mark Zgutowicz (The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division)

2025Q3: Creative growth was due to a normalization of premium access allocation between creative and editorial. - Craig Peters(CEO)

Can you provide an update on consumer adoption and monetization expectations for generative AI? - Cory Carpenter (JPMorgan)

2024Q4: Our revenue performance was supported by production activity recovery and some new content deals with AI licensing components. - Jenn Leyden(CFO)