A-Z of Broadcast PR



Although many PR and integrated agencies list broadcast in their services, it is often an afterthought and lacks the strategic thinking experienced broadcast PR professionals provide - especially if clients are after top tier broadcast coverage.

Here are some common broadcast PR terms explained:

A – Angle – an emphasis or take on a particular brand story crafted by PRs to appeal to the broadcast media

B – B-roll content – free, broadcast quality video content edited loosely and offered to broadcasters to re-edit themselves to help generate coverage of an event or story

C – Case Studies – media trained guests that are willing and able to do live or pre-recorded broadcast interviews will bring a story to life and help with the pitch

D – Distribution – the strategy behind selling-in a client’s story to relevant targets in the broadcast media together with timely video content

E – Evaluation – providing an idea of broadcast PR ‘value’ by showing outcomes of coverage in relation to clients’ business objectives

F – Fix – a well-briefed production team will fix a shoot to film a story / product / announcement in a broadcaster-friendly way while ensuring adequate client branding

G – GVs – General Views – a variety of shots to set the scene or location, often an exterior view of a client’s building, for example

H – Hits – the number of pieces of broadcast coverage (including repeats) which form part of the final monitoring report

I – Interviews – an experienced broadcast PR producer will coach a client spokesperson to provide engaging, succinct, relatable and branded answers for broadcaster use

J – Jump-Cut – a sudden, noticeable edit or cut from one shot in a sequence to another without an intervening shot such as a cutaway. May make the sequence unusable for broadcasters

K – Key Messages – a broadcast campaign can provide a platform from which on-brand client messages can be delivered to wide audience

L – Lives – a series of live broadcast interviews with a client spokesperson conducted by the broadcaster either remotely or on-site

M – Monitoring – listening to / recording, notification and evaluating client coverage across the broadcast media

N – News – when pitching to broadcast media, there must be an element of news to the story or at the very least a new development in a current story

O – Outside Broadcast - in broadcast PR terms when a TV station broadcasts live from a client’s event or announcement. We facilitate this by offering satellite trucks and camera crews for broadcaster use

P – Production – the process of ensuring a client’s story, visuals, branding and messaging are captured, edited and distributed to the broadcast media

Q – Qualitative / Quantitative (monitoring reports) – developing detailed insights and data from coverage achieved relating to audience reach, audience breakdown and share, as well as sentiment and delivery of client key messages

R – Radio Days – pitching a client’s story and spokesperson to national and regional radio stations with the aim of scheduling from a central studio a number of live or pre-recorded interviews on story day

S – SMT – Satellite Media Tour – as above but pitching to national and international TV stations that will interview the spokesperson during a limited timeframe via satellite link either live into programming or for pre-records

T – Treatment – scoping and scripting a brand film for example, outlining the target audience, narrative, look and feel, messaging and delivery. The treatment must be signed off by the client before shooting starts

U – UHD – Ultra High Definition – a digital video display format in which the horizontal screen resolution is 4000 pixels (4K) or 8000 pixels (8K). Regular HD screen resolution is 1080 pixels

V – Visual / Verbal (branding) – mentions of a client’s name / brand and visuals of their name / logo in broadcast coverage

W – Wide shot – typically shows an entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in relation to its surroundings, e.g. a branded factory exterior or a person using a product

X, Y, Z – nothing relevant but don’t want to sell you short so here are some others that didn’t make the cut...!


A-roll – a short, edited video in the style of a news report which tells the client’s story and, in effect, summarises the longer, supporting B-roll

Cutaways – vital components of a B-roll edit which helps a broadcaster cut a sequence and gets that content used! Usually close up shots of faces, eyes, hands, products, etc

Headline – can you summarise and simplify your client’s story pitch into a headline? This will help time-poor broadcast journalists

IFB – Interruptible Fold or Feed Back – one-way audio from the studio producer or TV show anchor / interviewer during a live satellite interview that the guest hears via an ear-piece

Soundbite – a succinct and usable answer from a client spokesperson either on B-roll or during a broadcaster interview

Watermarking – an embedding process by which video content produced on behalf of a client can be tracked when used by a broadcaster

We are experts in broadcast PR with over 20 years experience. #makeyourmarkinthemedia and get in touch for strategy, media relations, video production and distribution, media training and everything broadcast PR-related! +44 7967 353 727

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