What Sonuma does

SONUMA (legally SONUMA ASBL - Société de Numérisation des Archives Audiovisuelles) is a Belgian non-profit organization based in Liège that digitizes, preserves, and provides online access to audiovisual archives from RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge Francophone) and other Belgian broadcasters. Its catalog spans from the 1950s to recent years and is organized into themed categories including History/Politics, Sciences, Society, Art/Culture, Sports, and Folklore/Traditions, with additional editorial dossiers built around topical, cultural, or commemorative themes (e.g., Cannes 2026, the Belgian 'accords charbon' anniversary). The organization operates as a digital archive platform accessible at sonuma.be, where users must register and log in to access content.

The platform is built around digitization workflows that convert analog audiovisual media into digital formats suitable for streaming, search, and long-term digital preservation. Functionality centers on catalog browsing by category, free-text search, curated 'dossiers' and 'articles', and a 'Pro' section that targets professional media users. SONUMA has also extended its content-sourcing through partnerships with adjacent cultural-heritage institutions (e.g., the Cathobel collection, Bois du Cazier) and media partners such as magazine Wilfried.

The business model combines subscription-based access for registered users (including a professional tier for media producers and documentarians) with what is, in all likelihood, significant public-sector and institutional grant funding typical of European audiovisual non-profits. Direct revenue, pricing, headcount, and funding inflows are not publicly disclosed, and SONUMA carries no patents, certifications, or venture funding. Its value proposition rests on exclusive stewardship of Belgian audiovisual heritage and on making that heritage usable for research, education, and media production.

Name

Sonuma

Legal name

SONUMA ASBL - Société de Numérisation des Archives Audiovisuelles

Website

https://sonuma.be

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SONUMA is a Belgian non-profit based in Liège that digitizes and provides online access to RTBF audiovisual archives spanning the 1950s to today, serving researchers, educators, documentary filmmakers, and the general public via a subscription platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital audiovisual archive platform

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Libraries and Archives (519210)

SIC

Services-Photofinishing Laboratories (7384)

akta.pro primary industry

Archive Restoration & Digitization (Film/Video/Audio Scanning, Remastering) (MPAHAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Digital Archives, Libraries & Institutional Access Platforms (MPAJAMAJ)

Keywords

• Audiovisual archive digitization
• Digital media preservation
• Broadcast archive streaming
• Historical video catalog
• Archive content licensing

Headquarters

HQ city

Liège

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription Access: The platform requires user login for full access, indicating a subscription-based model where registered members can browse, select, and access archived content.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Sonuma digitizes, preserves, and provides online access to Belgian audiovisual archives—primarily content from RTBF—covering history, politics, culture, sports, science, and society from the 1950s through the 2020s. The service is delivered through the sonuma.be web platform with categorized browsing, keyword search, registered-user streaming access, and a 'Pro' section for professional media archive licensing. Its core capability is large-scale audiovisual digitization combined with long-term digital preservation.

Product overview

SONUMA is a single unified product platform — a digital audiovisual archive that provides online access to digitized historical television content. The platform serves as a repository of Belgian audiovisual heritage, offering users the ability to search, browse, and stream archived videos across multiple categories including History/Politics, Sports, Entertainment, Art/Culture, Sciences, Society, and Folklore/Traditions. The service appears to focus exclusively on archival content access rather than providing separate modules or add-on products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SONUMA Platform A comprehensive online audiovisual archive platform that digitizes, preserves, and provides streaming access to historical Belgian television content from RTBF and other Belgian broadcasters. It offers categorized browsing across history, politics, sports, entertainment, art, culture, sciences, society, and folklore, with keyword search, registered-user access, and a dedicated 'Pro' section for professional media licensing. Users include researchers, historians, educators, general public, and media professionals.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Cinémathèque royale de Belgique (CINEMATEK): Belgian federal film archive that preserves and provides access to Belgian film heritage, including public screenings and curatorial programming. A direct Belgian peer sharing overlapping content scope and cultural-heritage mandate, though focused on film rather than broadcast television.
• BFI National Archive: UK body responsible for the conservation and access of British film and television heritage. Comparable to Sonuma as a national broadcaster-archive steward offering both public discovery and professional licensing, though with a broader film-television scope.
• Memnon Archiving Services: Specialist audiovisual digitization service provider serving broadcasters, archives, and cultural institutions globally. Directly comparable as a B2B service layer for the same digitization and digital preservation work that underpins Sonuma's platform.
• Beeld en Geluid (Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision): Dutch national audiovisual archive that digitizes and provides public access to Dutch broadcasting heritage via an online platform. Operates a structurally similar non-profit mandate with consumer access and professional licensing, making it a direct regional counterpart to Sonuma.
• INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel): France's national audiovisual archive institute, operating a comparable model of digitizing, preserving, and providing online access to French broadcasting heritage. INA is the most direct functional peer given the shared mandate, public-broadcaster content sourcing, and B2C/B2B streaming platform structure.
• VRT Archief: Flemish public broadcaster's archive initiative providing online access to digitized VRT broadcast content. Direct peer operating the Flemish-language equivalent of Sonuma's RTBF-based offering in the same Belgian market.

Others

• Preservica: Commercial digital preservation software vendor serving cultural heritage, government, and corporate archives. Comparable as an enabling technology layer in the same long-term digital preservation value chain, though Sonuma is more likely a buyer of such platforms than a direct competitor.

Broad incumbents

• Internet Archive: Massive global non-profit digital library hosting archived web pages, audiovisual content, books, and broadcast recordings. Comparable in mission and consumer-facing archive access model, though vastly broader in scope than Sonuma's Belgian-broadcaster focus.

Emerging players

• Europeana: EU-funded pan-European digital cultural heritage platform aggregating content from national archives, libraries, and museums. Overlaps with Sonuma as a discovery and access layer for European audiovisual heritage, potentially both a partner and an alternative channel for Sonuma's content.

Regional players

• BBC Archive: BBC's publicly accessible archive offering curated clips and programs from British broadcasting history. Comparable as a broadcaster-led archive access platform, though operating in a different geography (UK) and at much larger scale than Sonuma.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sonuma.be
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sonuma
• Instagraminstagram.com/sonuma.be
• Xx.com/sonumarchives

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sonuma