BBC posts

It’s RAJAR day! The Q2 2019 results are out and there are some major changes across national and regional radio in the UK.  We’re taking a look at those changes to see who’s come out on top this quarter…

Andrew Verity told our audience at the latest Shout! Communications Small Talk. Andrew reports for radio and television across a range of BBC programmes. His main focus is economics, but he also works on investigative stories for programmes like Panorama. 

It’s a national, digital radio station which reaches over half a million people every week, but also one that is perhaps not as well understood as the more mainstream BBC stations. So it was with interest that we welcomed George Mann, Impact Editor at BBC Asian Network, to speak at one of our regular Shout! Communications Small Talks. 

In this digital age, it’s smart phones that rule the world; but are you using yours to its full potential? According to our recent Shout! Communications Small Talk speaker, Marc Settle, if you’re only using your phone for calls and texts, then you might as well have an old-school Nokia from the early 2000s! Marc is the BBC’s trainer in mobile journalism and his insights were nothing short of extraordinary. Not only is mobile technology changing the way broadcast journalists work, it will change the way we view and interact with it as an audience too.

It’s crazy to think around 6 million UK adults are tuning in to podcasts every week. That’s a number that’s almost doubled in five years (from 3.2 million in 2013) according to the latest Ofcom figures.

The latest RAJAR figures are out and it’s good news for breakfast shows. For those of you not in the know, RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and it’s the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. The organisation is jointly owned by the BBC and Radiocentre, on behalf of the commercial sector. 

I was feeling less nervous than the previous time. I can’t have been that bad I thought, as I made my way to BBC Broadcasting House to take part in Radio 4’s The Media Show, or they wouldn’t have invited me back.

Clients measure success in different ways, but we find almost all of them consider radio and TV coverage to be the icing on the cake.

The UK’s most popular station, BBC Radio 2, is facing the most upheaval, with both flagship breakfast and drive time shows being left in the lurch after their long-standing presenters left. Chris Evans quit live on-air in September after eight years at the primetime show to go back to his roots at Virgin Radio.

Sally Watson kicked the event off with positivity about the growth of Good Morning Britain and breakfast audiences in general. She said ten million people tune in to live TV news every morning, and they rely on it for big news events such as the Grenfell fire.

He’s just one of many celebrities though who is becoming a brand in his own right – albeit it an outspoken, principled and passionate brand. Some celebrities may focus on representing other brands and entrepreneurs’ ideas but Chris Packham is a man with purpose and values and ensures any project coincides with HIS goals .

By Kate Fallis, Broadcast PR Consultant

So, you’ve booked in your broadcast campaign and the launch day has finally arrived. Now it’s showtime and the pressure is on your spokesperson to weave in key messages and branding within the interviews, to keep you, or if you’re an agency, your client happy.

By Kate Fallis, Broadcast PR Consultant

Securing overseas coverage for clients is becoming much more prevalent and often the icing on the cake off the back of a successful UK campaign. Many clients have an EMEA and global brief too and selling in to international broadcasters is increasingly a requirement.

By Keren Haynes, Co-Director

At Shout! Communications we don’t think broadcast PR IS separate from “mainstream” PR, and it has always amazed us that there are those in the industry who think it is anything other than an integral part of any campaign.

By Kate Fallis, Broadcast PR Consultant

The latest RAJAR figures are just out, reflecting the first 3 months of this year, and there are some surprising outcomes to say the least.

By Arthur Perkins, Broadcast PR Consultant

You think you’ve got a strong story; the stats and spokespeople are lined up, you call the planning desk and they want you to send over your press release, you get a call back, they’re interested! Then, the producer calls and says, “something else has come up, we can’t do this anymore”. Cue despair.

by Catherine Bayfield, Co-Director

From Monday 16th April it’s all change at ITV Daytime with their big move from London’s South Bank to White City.