ITN is to cut 50 roles in a restructure that includes striking a deal with Getty Images to sell its news archive of 1m-plus TV clips globally.

The company, which produces ITV and Channel 4 news, has struck a multiyear deal to outsource sales of its archive, which spans 60 years of news footage, to the stock photo agency, in a move that puts 30 roles at its in-house ITN Source division at risk.

Andy Williams, managing director of digital content services at ITN, said the decision to close its sales operation was taken because of the global reach Getty could offer as a partner.

“Getty Images has the scale, expertise and distribution footprint to ensure ITN’s video archive reaches the widest possible audience and we look forward to a successful partnership,” he said.

The decision to close the ITN Source sales operation was also taken because the company failed to renew a new contract to sell Reuters archive. The contract expires in January.

ITN has a fully digitised news archive dating back to its very first broadcast in 1955. The archive includes footage of moments such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby’s exclusive interview with then newly engaged Prince William and Kate Middleton, as well as the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Haiti earthquakes.

The contract with Getty begins from mid-2017.

The photo stock agency, which is run globally by former television executive Dawn Airey, struck a similar deal with the Press Association in September plus a five-year deal with the BBC in 2013.

Separately, ITN is cutting a further 20 staff mostly from its technology department as part of its “2020 Vision” strategy to try to reduce its dependence on news bulletins and to boost total revenues by 50% in five years.

There also a small number of roles to go at ITV News and ITN Productions, which makes adverts and TV programmes including BBC2’s Young Vets, Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Agenda for ITV.

ITN said the changes announced on Thursday were in line with its five-year strategy. She added: “The outlook for ITN’s future remains both ambitious and optimistic, and given the continued growth projections, we fully anticipate that by 2018 we will be back to our current levels of staff numbers as new jobs are created in parts of the business which are expanding rapidly.”

ITN employs a total of 730 full-time staff, its news division generated £95.7m in revenue last year while its non-news businesses made £34m.

John Hardie, its chief executive, took home more than £1.2m last year, while most staff had to settle for a 1.4% pay increase.