Adobe to Acquire Frame.io

Written by Peter Wiggins Published: 19 August 2021

Category: Articles

Top BlogReading time: 01:01

Adobe has announced it is to acquire Frame.io, the cloud based video collaboration platform.

Possibly the biggest news in the industry this year, Adobe is to acquire Frame.io for $1.275 billion.

We’ve entered a new era of connected creativity that is deeply collaborative and we imagine a world where everyone can participate in the creative process. With this acquisition, we’re welcoming an incredible customer-oriented team and adding Frame.io’s cloud-native workflow capabilities to make the creative process more collaborative, productive, and efficient to further unleash creativity for all.” - Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud

“Frame.io and Adobe share a vision for the future of video creation and collaboration that brings together Adobe’s strength in video creation and production and Frame.io’s cloud-native platform. We’re excited to join Adobe to continue to drive video innovation for the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, agencies and brands.”- Emery Wells, Frame.io co-founder and CEO

Slightly ironic that Adobe buys a company that started off by making a tool for Final Cut Pro.

More on the Adobe blog and an article from Emery Wells from Frame.io here.

Written by Peter Wiggins

Top BloggerThought Leader

I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.

I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.

Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.

I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!

Current Editing

great house giveaway 2020

2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.

Tour de france 2020
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.

BBC snooker the crucible

BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.

amazon kindle BF

Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.

As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.

Plugin Design & Development

I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.

I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.

FCP.co

Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.

The Future

I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!

Posts in discussion: Adobe to Acquire Frame.io

cseeman replied the topic: #115856 19 Aug 2021 20:47

Maybe it's concerning that Adobe and not Apple made this move. Although this kind of service is not high on Apple's radar. I'm not sure Adobe is going to be keen on continuing FCP support. Sigh!

rustychainpro replied the topic: #115857 19 Aug 2021 20:49

I sure hope good folks at Frame.io can continue to serve the FCP community. It has changed my workflow for the better and would hate to lose it. . .

nobbystylus replied the topic: #115858 19 Aug 2021 21:38

Apple needs to buy Postlab with Postlab Drive... and maybe Vimeo too!

nobbystylus replied the topic: #115859 19 Aug 2021 22:07

From the Frame.io website- "The changes you’ll see will be additive to our existing capabilities; you can expect to see deeper integration with Premiere Pro and other Adobe products. We will also continue our commitment to invest in other partner integrations including Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and AVID Media Composer."

cseeman replied the topic: #115860 20 Aug 2021 00:43

nobbystylus wrote:
From the Frame.io website- "The changes you’ll see will be additive to our existing capabilities; you can expect to see deeper integration with Premiere Pro and other Adobe products. We will also continue our commitment to invest in other partner integrations including Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and AVID Media Composer."

A promise made to be broken in the future IMHO. It may help them through regulatory approval. Afterward, I wouldn't be surprised if there were higher subscriptions prices for non-Adobe users (who may some level free with Creative Cloud) with Adobe finding it's not worth it to provide support and features to competitors at some point in the future.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115867 20 Aug 2021 11:51

Peter - a slight correction. Frame was up and running before there was any FCP integration, IIRC. So it didn't start out based on those tools.

tverhaar replied the topic: #115871 20 Aug 2021 14:25

Disappointing news for sure. I am also not confident Adobe will continue to support FCP.

peteramwiggins replied the topic: #115872 20 Aug 2021 14:39

Frame.io as we know it came from ClipExporter that was released a year after FCPX's launch. Was there a service before the integration? Yes for a few months, but the new app that did the hard work.

If you look at GTrends, it wasn't until Summer 2015 when things started to move, which was when ClipExporter got rolled in and then marketed to FCPX users.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115873 20 Aug 2021 14:52

Peter, I think you are only talking about the integration. I've been using Frame since nearly the beginning and for us it's always been a review-and-approval site. We have the FCP and Premiere integrations and never use them. However, at that time, the options were Wipster and Frame. Wipster is the engine behind Vimeo's R&A feature, AFAIK.

You are correct in that FCPX integration followed shortly after the launch, but I doubt that was the impetus for creating the service in the first place. Simply that it was an easy integration and a receptive community. But at it's core, Frame is an R&A service that's trying to become something more.

intouchmedia replied the topic: #115874 20 Aug 2021 14:54

We spent years freeing ourselves from the Adobe claws. We will not go back there. Goodbye frame.IO

I guess it really is a time of enormous change.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115875 20 Aug 2021 15:46

But Frame has always been a subscription, so how does this change things? Every R&A service available is a subscription business model. Alternatives include Kollaborate, Vimeo, and Wipster, among others.

spurratic replied the topic: #115876 20 Aug 2021 16:57

Thats really unfortunate, not because I'm overly concerned about FCP support (I don't find the extension to be that great currently, so I use Frame.io web only to begin with)........my bigger concern is just Adobe's track record of buggy, crashy, poorly thought out software.

Hopefully the entire Frame.io team stays on board and keeps developing. And who knows.....perhaps they will shock us all and improve the FCP extension.

It can't get much worse than the PP Frame.io Add On!

spurratic replied the topic: #115877 20 Aug 2021 17:00

This^^^^^^

Frame.io is Review and Approval by Web. Extensions were an add on that never worked that great to begin with.
Hopefully there won't be any actual cross over with Adobe.....they just own it and fund it but hoping the Web interface stays as its own entity.

ronny courtens replied the topic: #115878 20 Aug 2021 17:15

This was to be expected. Fame.io was already acquired by venture capitalists. Once that happens, you can expect a fast sale-out of the company for short-term profits. The product and the people become irrelevant at that stage. VC is a sick world.

It doesn't really matter anyway. It's just a Review and Approval app and there are many of these on the market. If you cannot live without it, keep using it. If you object to the acquisition for some personal reason, use something else. Much to do about nothing.

- Ronny

JoeEditor replied the topic: #115897 21 Aug 2021 13:33

blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/08/19/ado...meio.html#gs.8wg88x…

Zero mention of support for other NLE's, sounds like they'll super-charge their own apps to integrate with Frame.io but not other NLEs. Even if they maintain support for other NLEs, I'm sure PPro will outshine being Adobe and the "owner".

I know Patrick is on Twitter claiming over and over and over they are committed to continuing support for FCP and Resolve, etc. But, once the sale is final, it won't be his decision anymore. Not to mention how really horribly bad the plug-ins were for FCP which never worked correctly.

Yeah, not an Adobe fan, we've seen what Adobe does with acquisitions before. But more importantly, look at this and other recent news from Adobe, and from Resolve (BMD), and you'll see Apple is letting FCP fall further and further behind. That's the reality, not an opinion.

Good bye Frame.io, it was a bumpy, buggy, half-working ride anyway.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115901 21 Aug 2021 13:45

The proof will be in the pudding. Past acquisitions have varied in their Adobe evolution, depending on how successful the previous company was prior to acquisition by Adobe. Sample of previous examples:

CoSA (After Effects)
CoolEdit Pro (Audition)
Iridas (SpeedGrade, then just Lumetri)
Behance

Scrubelicious replied the topic: #115920 22 Aug 2021 10:17

It would have been better someone that understands Workflow would have picked up frame.io like blackmagic Design.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115923 22 Aug 2021 13:59

Edited - see below

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115924 22 Aug 2021 14:00

Scrubelicious: "It would have been better someone that understands Workflow would have picked up frame.io like blackmagic Design."

That's not how these things works. Blackmagic only has bought companies that had great IP, but were no longer very successful in the marketplace. IOW, they could acquire the assets on the cheap.

If you are worried about how Adobe handles it going forward, remember that when Blackmagic originally purchased the assets of DaVinci, they promptly cancelled all existing support contracts and stopped all of the existing hardware production. As parts inventories dwindled, customers were SOL. Quite frankly I was surprised the many of the high-end customers even continued using Resolve.

Another point of interest is that Resolve was not the dominant DaVinci product at the time. But it was the only resolution-independent, software-based, color correction product that DaVinci had, and therefore, easier for Blackmagic to adapt. Shops that had rooms based on DaVinci 2K were simply set adrift.[/quote]

JoeEditor replied the topic: #115927 22 Aug 2021 15:11

"...remember that when Blackmagic originally purchased the assets of DaVinci..."
Or like how Apple killed off Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Server (top sellers and industry dominants of their kind) in the blink of an eye without warning?

Scrubelicious replied the topic: #115929 22 Aug 2021 15:59

We are aware how things work and don't, but still a person can still have wishful thinking. Right?
Regarding your comments on Blackmagic and cancelling support. Let's not forget what Adobe has done in the past and is still does, as well Apple has done. So yes this does worry me and others.

To real I think frame.io was in a much better place as neutral company that was offering a cross-platform service.

But back to my wishful thinking, let's not forget that Blackmagic has somewhat a hardware backbone that could have been very useful.

Oliver Peters replied the topic: #115930 22 Aug 2021 16:44

Sure, all companies change and adjust acquired assets, companies, and products all the time. No one is immune. I don't think Frame ever intended to be a separate company for its entire existence. Otherwise it wouldn't have sought venture capital funding at the start.

From the very beginning, they have had ambitions to become something more than what they are, which is slick review-and-approval service. I'm extremely skeptical about the whole C2C workflow. But Adobe shares this cloud philosophy (BMD most definitely does not), so going with Adobe could make this vision become realized.

"let's not forget that Blackmagic has somewhat a hardware backbone that could have been very useful."

I don't understand this comment. Did you mean for Frame? If so, I don't see how that's a factor at all.

JoeEditor replied the topic: #115936 23 Aug 2021 01:44

NDI has support for FCP, but very minimal. So saying you'll support FCP really doesn't mean much until we see exactly how deep, or how horribly shallow that support will be. The station I work for is changing ownership, changing programming, etc, etc, etc. We are investing in long-term solutions and Frame.io just doesn't seem to be where the new owners want to put their money, and I don't blame them. I'm moving my personal R&A to another solution. "Trust me" is not really something consumers should buy in to, but then, Apple says "trust us" and fails and we still use FCP.

Frame.io guys are posting on Twitter that they are aware it is up to them to prove they will continue to equally support all NLEs, and the promise to do it. BUT, being owned by Adobe means it is no longer their decision to do so, it is up to Adobe. We will see what the future brings, for both Frame.io and FCP. Fulfill the needs of professionals across the board, or only a few select platforms, or simply target YouTubers? We will see...

Karsten Schlüter replied the topic: #115940 23 Aug 2021 04:41

Just thinking for a second:
The moment, Apple adds collaboration, annotation etc. as a built-in feature to FCP, Frame.io is worthless.
Smart move to sell it to Adobe, as long as you get some bucks....

What's wrong in targeting FCP as a YouTuber tool?

JoeEditor replied the topic: #115943 23 Aug 2021 11:12

Nothing wrong with developing FCP as a non-professional tool, but don't claim it is a professional tool if it's not.