"The International Federation of Television Archives was set up in Rome in 1977, by ARD (Germany), BBC (UK), INA (France) and RAI (Italy). Gathering 180 members coming from over 70 countries, FIAT/IFTA is presently the most important professional organisation in the field of broadcasting archives. Its membership is drawn from public and commercial broadcasters, national audiovisual archives and technical companies catering to the broacasting industry. The International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA) is a professional association established to provide a means for co-operation amongst television archives, multimedia and audiovisual archives and libraries concerned with the collection, preservation and exploitation of moving image and recorded sound materials and associated documentation - still image and other materials."