Getty said its biggest business; rights-managed stock imagery was achieving record numbers. However, Klein said royalty-free stock photo sales had grown less than expected in North America.

Klein said a that reorganization of the Getty Images' American sales department also had a negative impact on royalty-free sales and noted that such changes often cause disruptions in the early stages, but lead to improvements later on. According to Klein, Getty has also made similar changes in other countries, which caused a temporary drop, but that sales then improved.

Getty's average royalty-free image sold for $254 during the first quarter of this year, an 11 percent over increase over last year. However, the average royalty rate for RF sales paid to photographers and other image partners or sub-distributors is down to 17 percent compared to 25 percent during the first quarter last year. According to retiring Getty Chief Financial Officer Liz Huebner, this is not because of any changes in Getty's deals with photographers, but because the company is now selling more wholly owned imagery and in particular due to its acquisition of the Digital Vision stock library last year.

The average price for rights-managed images was $578. Though prices for rights-managed images has been on the decline, Klein stated that much of the decline can be accounted for by currency variations and the success of Getty's efforts to sell more imagery to editorial clients which traditionally pay less than commercial image users.

Klein also noted that rights-managed sales now account for about 54 percent of revenues from Getty's creative side the business. Chief Financial Officer Liz Hubner indicated that during the most recent quarter, rights-managed images accounted for about 43 percent of Getty's total revenue. Getty also reports income from its editorial, film and assignment as well as its digital asset management programs.

Klein also said international sales continue to grow and that one of the fastest areas of growth is Japan where sales were up over 50 percent over last year. About half of Getty's revenues are from the Americas, with 42 percent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 8 percent from Asia.