Getty Images Chapter 11: what it means for stock video contributors

Getty Images filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on 21 October 2026. Getty says contributor agreements, royalty rates and submissions do not change, and the court has already allowed it to keep paying royalties that contributors earned before the filing. None of this is final until the court confirms Getty's plan, at a hearing set for 15 December 2026.

This page follows the case for stock video contributors, including those outside the United States. Every fact comes from the court record on the case site run by Kroll, or from a named source, with the date we read it. It is updated at each step of the case.

Timeline

Last checked on 28 October 2026, on the Kroll case site and the court documents linked from it. Times are US Eastern Time (ET). As each date passes, its row changes to Done and says what actually happened.

If you have read 14 December elsewhere: the court's scheduling order and the Kroll site both give 15 December 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

What Getty told contributors

On 21 October 2026 Getty wrote to its contributors. The letter is signed "Getty Images | iStock" and is linked from the case site. It says there is "no impact to content submissions, content licensing activities, contributor support, or royalty payments." For this month's payment cycle, it says royalties are "expected to be released on or before October 30, 2026."

The letter also says contributors will receive a legal notice from Kroll, the firm that handles the case's notices, and that they are not required to take any action. Its FAQ answers three more questions the same way: no impact on contributor agreements, no change to royalty rates or contributor terms, and Getty keeps accepting and licensing contributors' work as normal.

The plan documents attached to the court's scheduling order (Doc 120) say the same thing in their own words: Getty does not expect the plan to have any impact on its contributors.

What the court has allowed so far

On 22 October 2026 the court signed an interim order on payments to contributors (Doc 117). In plain terms:

• It allows, but does not require, Getty to pay royalties that contributors earned before the filing, in the ordinary course and as it did before.
• Until the final hearing, the cap is $12.3 million for independent contributors and $6.9 million for image partners (third parties such as sports leagues, studios and media organizations that supply Getty under their own agreements).
• Getty may make a payment conditional on the contributor agreeing to keep supplying work on customary terms.
• It does not bring forward any payment that is not yet due.
• The final hearing on these payments is set for 17 November 2026. Objections to a final order are due by 10 November 2026.

Getty's motion behind that order (Doc 12, filed 21 October 2026) gives the scale. Getty counts more than 600,000 independent contributors, described as "photographers, videographers, and illustrators", and more than 360 image partners. It estimated that on the filing date it owed independent contributors about $59.3 million in earned, unpaid royalties, of which about $12.3 million falls due before the final order.

The motion also describes how royalties are usually paid: once a contributor has about $100 in royalties, Getty ordinarily pays the following month. It adds that timing can depend on whether the contributor has sent all the required documents and payment details.

In the order, the court noted that a significant portion of Getty's contributors are outside the United States, and gave that as one of its reasons for allowing the payments.

What the plan proposes

The plan is Getty's proposal. It becomes binding only if the court confirms it, at the hearing set for 15 December 2026. This is what the court's scheduling order and its notices (Doc 120) say:

• Ordinary unsecured claims are "Unimpaired". Class 6, General Unsecured Claims, is to be paid in full in cash, reinstated, or otherwise left unimpaired. Holders in this class do not vote and are presumed to accept the plan. The ASMP's Thomas Maddrey wrote on 12 October that many photographers' balances would likely be viewed as this kind of claim, and that whether a particular balance belongs there depends on the agreement.
• Contracts are kept by default. On the day the plan takes effect, contracts are treated as assumed (kept), unless they appear on a "Schedule of Rejected Executory Contracts and Unexpired Leases" or fall under a few other exceptions, such as a contract that has already expired. We had not found that schedule on the case site on 28 October 2026.
• A separate rule for licence agreements. Any agreement granting rights in intellectual property to which a Getty company in the case is a party, and which is not listed for rejection, is assumed by that same company and not assigned. The documents we read do not say whether contributor agreements fall under this rule.
• The 30 November deadlines. Voting, objections to the plan, objections to a contract's assumption, and the opt-in all close on 30 November 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The opt-in is a choice to grant the plan's third-party release. The ballot says a claim gets the same treatment whether or not that box is ticked.

If you contribute from outside the United States

The seven companies in the case are Getty Images Holdings, Inc. and six US subsidiaries: Griffey Midco (DE), LLC; Abe Investment Holdings, Inc.; Getty Images, Inc.; Getty Images (US), Inc.; Getty Images News Services (PRC), Inc.; and Getty Images (Seattle), Inc. No company outside the United States is in the case.

That does not by itself put a non-US contributor outside it. Getty's motion says that every contributor contract, wherever the contributor lives, is administered and paid through Getty Images (US), Inc., and it describes independent contributors as contracting with that company. The documents do not list which company each individual agreement names. That name is in your own agreement and statements.

The motion also says Getty is concerned that contributors abroad may not know that the automatic stay applies to them, and may take steps such as starting proceedings in a court outside the United States. The automatic stay generally pauses many lawsuits and collection efforts against a company in Chapter 11, as the ASMP's article explains. The ASMP adds that a contributor's country of residence does not, by itself, decide whether a claim is affected, and that cross-border agreements may be complex.

Video, ESP and iStock

• Video. No document we read treats video differently from photos. The motion lists videographers among independent contributors and video among what Getty licenses.
• ESP. Getty's letter says submissions are not affected. None of the court documents we read mentions ESP, the portal Getty Images contributors upload through.
• iStock. The letter to contributors is signed "Getty Images | iStock", but the court documents we read do not name iStock. The motion's statement about all contributor contracts does not say whether it covers iStock agreements in the same way.

The records contributors are keeping

The ASMP's checklist, published by PetaPixel on 12 October 2026, lists what to keep: royalty statements and payment history, a dated screenshot of the unpaid balance and the next expected payout, the signed contributor agreement and its amendments, releases, and an inventory of submitted files with their asset IDs. It also suggests noting the exact Getty company named in the agreement and statements, and keeping copies outside Getty's systems.

For a Getty contributor who uploads through ESP, this is where the statements are. We read it on a live contributor account on 2026-10-07:

• ESP's header link Account Management opens Getty's account site.
• Its left menu has Royalties (a dashboard), Summary (the monthly statement) and Export (one month of sales as a downloadable file, one row per sale).
• On that account, monthly statements went back to January 2024.

For a video contributor, the Export file is the per-clip record: each row carries the asset number and the name of the file that was uploaded.

What is still unknown

As of 28 October 2026:

• whether the payment expected by 30 October 2026 is made;
• what the final order on contributor payments says after the 17 November hearing;
• whether any contributor agreement is listed for rejection;
• whether contributor agreements count as licence agreements under the plan;
• how iStock agreements are handled, since the court documents we read do not name iStock;
• which Getty company each individual agreement names;
• whether the court confirms the plan on 15 December 2026, and when it takes effect.

How this page is updated

The next check is on 31 October 2026, after the date Getty gave for this month's royalties. The following ones are on 11 November (after the objection deadline), 18 November (after the final hearing), 24 November (the Plan Supplement), 1 December (votes and objections) and 16 December (the confirmation hearing). Each update changes the status in the Timeline, adds what happened with its source, and moves the "Updated" date at the top of the page.

Questions about the case itself go to Kroll, which runs the case site: GettyImagesInfo@ra.kroll.com, 844-408-3675 (toll-free in the US and Canada) or +1 646-825-2402 (international).