Media preservation — for the next 2000 years.

Preserve what defines us — our stories, knowledge, and identity. Arctic World Archive helps organizations secure their most valuable media heritage for future generations.

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What we do

We ensure media heritage is preserved in its most reliable form: permanent, offline, and future-ready.

The Arctic World Archive provides a distinctive solution for media organizations — storing their digital collections on piqlFilm, an ultra-stable format, secured within the Arctic permafrost.

No servers. No connections. No accidental erasure.

Whether you safeguard films, broadcasts, radio archives, or publications — we make sure they endure for centuries.

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The Foundation

The Arctic World Archive was founded in 2017 by Norwegian company Piql, with the vision of protecting the world’s cultural and historical records. Using ultra-resistant film, valuable data was placed deep inside a disused coal mine in Svalbard, where the permafrost provides natural security.

In 2025, AWA evolved into an independent foundation, ensuring neutrality, openness, and global responsibility.

Our mission is straightforward:
Protect the world’s media heritage — in a secure, lasting, and sustainable way for generations to come.

Who we serve

Because the past deserves a future, we safeguard digital media heritage from cyberattacks, obsolescence, electromagnetic pulses, and digital degradation for:

Cinema

Every film is a time capsule — a lens capturing the emotions, struggles, and dreams of its era. From Oscar-winning masterpieces to forgotten reels rediscovered, cinema shapes how we remember. Yet the fragility of old reels and the obsolescence of digital formats threaten to erase these legacies without intervention. We ensure that these stories, frozen in frames, survive far beyond digital fragility.

Television

Television has been the heartbeat of culture — telling stories that reached into living rooms and shaped collective memory. From landmark broadcasts to beloved series, we help preserve the archives that documented everyday life and extraordinary events alike. By protecting them against digital decay, we ensure that tomorrow’s historians and audiences can still access these cultural milestones.

Radio

The first voice transmitted over the airwaves carried more than words — it carried history. From breaking news to iconic broadcasts, radio has chronicled the 20th century like no other medium. Without proper preservation, these soundscapes risk fading into silence, but we safeguard them for future listeners across centuries.

Publishing

From newspapers that captured world events to magazines that defined eras, publishing has always reflected the pulse of society. Books, whether timeless classics or modern works, carry ideas, imagination, and knowledge across generations. Preserving these creations ensures that voices, stories, and debates remain accessible, not just today but for centuries to come.