National Television and Video Preservation Foundation

Announces $350,000 Inaugural Preservation Grant Program

Los Angeles, October 8, 2003 – The National Television and Video Preservation Foundation (NTVPF) opens its inaugural grant program this fall with over $350,000 in first-year preservation services donated by sponsors to award in support of noteworthy television and video preservation projects. The NTVPF is an independent, non-profit organization created to fulfill a long-standing need by raising private funds and providing grants to support preservation and access projects at institutions with television and video collections throughout the United States.

The work to establish the NTVPF is being conducted through a collaborative effort involving both public and private sector individuals and institutions. The NTVPF has received critical support from eighteen founding preservation sponsors and initial project funding from three benefactors. This new 501 (c)(3) charitable Foundation enables individual public and non-profit archives to preserve, and provide access to, television and video materials that would otherwise be lost to the public.

At this time, the NTVPF is offering Preservation Grants based on preservation services donated to the NTVPF by commercial video and audio facilities, storage companies, consultants and film laboratories. Not-for-profit organizations in the United States, including local, state and federal institutions, may apply for these services. The grants target television and video works made in the United States or by American citizens, which are not protected by commercial interests. Productions originating on electronic video formats and film-based productions made for distribution on television will be considered.

“One goal of this foundation is to offer a wide variety of grants covering a broad range of challenges facing the preservation of television and video materials – film problems, video problems, audio problems. Even grants for climate-controlled storage are available for institutions that cannot afford it,” said Lisa Carter, Project Manager for the NTVPF. “Our founding sponsors have really come through to help meet these critical preservation needs.”

Applications for this initial round of grants are due December 1, 2003. For more information about the NTVPF, its grant program, or to apply for a grant, visit the Foundation’s website at www.ntvpf.tv or send email to info@ntvpf.tv.

"The American television and video heritage is now at a crossroads. One direction leads toward catastrophic losses of film and videotape… Another direction leads toward the managed preservation of extant television and video materials that bear an important relationship to American history and culture regardless of their reuse potential or monetary value.”

Library of Congress Report, Television and Video Preservation 1997