What is the Creative Content Exchange?

Background

The Creative Content Exchange is a UK government-backed initiative that aims to bring together UK-based creative content owners and businesses looking to use the wealth and range of digital assets the UK’s cultural institutions hold in their collections and archives.

In June 2025, the UK Government published the Creative Industries Sector Plan, setting out their vision for the UK creative sector and making a commitment to establishing a Creative Content Exchange (CCE).​

The intention is for the CCE to be a trusted marketplace enabling access and licensing to digitised cultural and creative assets held by the UK’s cultural institutions and organisations. To test the proof of concept behind the CCE, the Natural History Museum (NHM) in collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) organised a small, closed pilot to build a platform and test the market. As part of this, options for procuring a complete platform solution to house the CCE for the duration of the pilot was undertaken and which was awarded in early 2026.​

A BETA version of the platform for early testing will be launched to a select group of stakeholders in April 2026 with a fuller launch expected in the summer of 2026 for more general access and further testing. The outcomes of the pilot will determine market demand and the future phases of the CCE project.​

You can read the UK Government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-sector-plan

Our mission

The mission of the CCE is to be a secure and trusted marketplace that connects UK creative and cultural content owners with data consumers - at scale and in a fair value exchange - thereby enabling innovation, growth, and value creation in the creative sector and beyond.

The pilot

Our pilot started in December 2025 and runs for a year until December 2026.

The purpose of the pilot is to build an online solution and test the market for both content supply and demand from customers. The outcomes of which will determine how the CCE is taken forward.

The pilot aims to explore 4 key questions:

  • Is there commercial value in the data and content that public sector and arms-length bodies cultural institutions hold?

  • Can we get to a fair-value exchange between the institutions as content providers and content consumers? 

  • Can we build the CCE so it will scale (technically, legally, operationally) and we see early signs of network effects? ​

  • Do we see anecdotal evidence that the CCE is having a positive impact on innovation and ​growth in the UK technology and creative industries? ​

Want to know more?

If you are interested in knowing more about the CCE or how you can get involved, get in touch with the team at: hello@thecce.co.uk

And we will happily set up a meeting with you and your team to discuss this exciting new initiative, as well as a briefing on the project.