Why Choosing Stations Strategically Can Increase the Power and Reach of a Broadcast Interview

When it comes to securing broadcast coverage, there is simply no one-size-fits-all approach to planning your broadcast PR campaign. This is for a variety of reasons, but one key factor that can be underestimated is the particular nuances of individual stations, and how these nuances can be used to fine-tune your strategy and maximise its impact. To explain more, here’s Broadcast Revolution’s Deputy Head of News Ashleigh Carroll. 

Broadcast isn’t just one big entity - every station presents its own unique set of opportunities through its approach to syndication and content sharing, and can deliver a far bigger impact than you might expect. By understanding the nuances of particular broadcasters, you can ensure your campaigns will work harder and smarter, and strategise to make the most of the power and reach of broadcast opportunities on a multiplatform basis. 

One broadcast station: Many opportunities 

In a change that was accelerated by the pandemic, many broadcasters have invested in a multichannel approach which has served to broaden the reach of anyone appearing on their stations. In the modern age, a broadcast interview may not just appear once on a single outlet; it may be turned into social media assets, an article, or broadcast on both TV and radio. 

For this reason, it’s vital to be strategic in your approach to choosing your media targets. It may be the case, for example, that a radio programme with a smaller audience of live listeners has a huge following on social media and shares their content with them as a matter of course. 

In this scenario, it may be more worth your time securing interviews on this programme rather than a competitor - especially if you are hoping to reach a younger demographic. 

To illustrate further, here are the ways in which a selection of broadcasters will disseminate content beyond their traditional remit. 

Global 

During the pandemic, several of the radio stations at Global underwent a huge transformation. Multiple TV screens were installed, along with dozens of high-tech cameras and new and improved lighting. Radio studios were transformed to become, essentially, TV studios. Now, when radio guests appear on a show, they are often steamed online in vision via the Global app. Clips of their interviews can also be taken and posted on social media.

Times Radio 

The situation at Global has played out in a similar way at Times Radio. When a guest is asked to appear on the station via Zoom, producers will always ask that their camera is turned on so that interview can then be clipped and posted onto their social media platforms.

BBC 

For the BBC, video and radio work side by side. Nicky Campbell is a prime example of this. His 5live radio phone-in is now regularly broadcast live on the BBC News Channel and on BBC2. With radio, one BBC interview can end up being broadcast across multiple stations—both TV and radio. 

There have been times when we have had a spokesperson doing an interview with 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money and part of that interview is then used in the business section on Radio 4’s Today Programme. There is also the opportunity for an entire interview on those stations to be written up as an article and posted on the BBC News website, with a link to it then shared on social media sites. You can end up everywhere!

Sky News

Speaking commercially, Sky News is able to reach millions of people around the world not just through TV, YouTube and online but also through Sky News Radio. All interviews for Sky News Radio are pre-recorded and audio is then shared with more than 280 commercial stations across the UK. 

So, for example, a spokesperson who has done a pre-recorded interview with Sky News Radio, could then hear clips of themselves on a range of news bulletins the following morning. We saw this with the money-saving app Plum. 

Their spokesperson did a pre-recorded interview with Sky News Radio the day before the Chancellor’s Budget last month. The following morning, clips were taken from that interview and were broadcast on stations including Times Radio, Absolute and multiple regional stations.

Regional programming and syndication 

The BBC’s Central News Service (CNS), which is based in Salford, has been running for years and is a great way to reach many stations in little time. Simply put, it provides national content for local radio stations. A spokesperson who is booked to do CNS will undertake as many as 8 interviews with a range of BBC local radio stations over an hour. These can be live or pre-recorded, and the total audience reach secured can exceed a million people.

One thing to factor in is breakfast and mid-morning shows on BBC local radio stations are still very much focused on their respective geographical areas. Afternoons though are syndicated where three or four local stations share one programme between them. With these programmes, there is a larger focus on entertainment and lighter content and therefore more options for PR stories to be heard. Regional programmes offer an effective way for a spokesperson to reach a large audience with just one interview.

ITV has a similar concept with their shared content hub. It provides up to 10 minutes of content to pretty much all of the ITV regional news programmes every evening during the week. One reporter will work on 11 different versions of a package for different ITV regional newsrooms and the stories will range from politics to consumer and human interest stories.

Case Study: Elf on the Shelf

Back in December, we worked with the creators of the “Elf on the Shelf” who’d flown over from the States to do two jam-packed days of broadcast interviews. One of those was with a reporter who worked with ITV’s content hub. That reporter travelled down to our studio in London from his base in Leeds and the spokespeople were able to do just one interview which, when packaged together, featured on the early evening news programmes across 11 different regions.

When we media train spokespeople at Broadcast Revolution, one thing we always tell them is that one approach now covers so many different broadcast mediums. Radio and TV are very much seen as one and we’re seeing a bigger focus now on parts of an interview being put on social media. Media organisations are looking to expand their audiences ever further.

So much has changed over the course of just five years. Who knows what the next five years have in store.