The deal will create the world's biggest commercial source of news and history footage, containing half-a-million hours of historical material dating back to 1896.
Under the exclusive five-year deal, ITN will operate and represent British Pathe's film archive business, selling its content around the world through ITN Archive's network of international offices.
Julian Aston, managing director of British Pathe, said: "Last year, we completed the digitisation of the archive, which has made it uniquely accessible throughout the world and the first archive to be available online in a fully viewable and searchable form. Since then we have been exploring ways of accessing and expanding our appeal to the global broadcast market."
He added: "The ITN archive provides us with access to traditional broadcast markets and is deeply committed to developing new markets via the worldwide web."
ITN is owned by Granada, Carlton Communications, Daily Mail & General Trust, Reuters and United Business Media, which each hold the maximum 20% stake allowed by current regulations.
Last month, ITC chief executive Patricia Hodgson called for the proposed review into the ownership of ITN by super-regulator Ofcom to be made a priority.
The government is set to lift that limit to allow Carlton and Granada to increase their stake to 40% when they merge. However, the companies are lobbying the government to let them take full control of the service.
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