Category: EVENT PR

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UP PERISCOPE – LIVE STREAMING NEWS FROM ANYWHERE?

Depending on your point of view, in 2015 we are either living in a golden age of news or teetering on the brink of unregulated chaos and information overload. Communication via internet and social media has seen the rise of citizen journalists and media-savvy extremists as well as bloggers on almost every conceivable subject.

Now new apps Meerkat and Periscope allow anyone with a smartphone to stream video and audio live, effectively broadcasting to the world. But telling a story well requires skill and experience and reporting live from wherever you happen to be can raise a multitude of practical, legal and ethical issues.  Placing such powerful tools in the hands of everyone opens the door to problems including piracy, violation of copyright and invasion of privacy.  Threats range from the commercial – US TV network HBO recently issued ‘take down’ notices to Periscope after the app was used to leak episodes of Game of Thrones on Twitter – to the intensely personal. The potential for live coverage from a major atrocity or disaster, not to mention smaller and more intimate tragedies and the activities of the growing band of internet trolls presents a disturbing prospect.

Periscope, 20 April 2015It’s too soon to judge the impact of universal live streaming on the traditional media landscape, but respected journalists and media ranging from The Economist to Sky News have already experimented with the apps to add a new dimension to their output. The results of live ‘fly on the wall’ smartphone footage may not be polished, but its flexibility and immediacy are attractive.  Behind-the-scenes coverage seems an obvious place to start and political campaigns including the forthcoming US Presidential election look set to test the public’s appetite for unconventional reporting.

New channels and technologies may be changing the way people access news and information, but the more material there is the more we need help to find the things we want to know amongst the many that are of no interest whatsoever.  For now at least, navigating the growing number of live streams presents a significant challenge.

Stories are the lifeblood of broadcast news and at OLB our business is built on bringing unusual stories to the attention of conventional and new media.  We believe that by shedding light on news from parts of the world, people and businesses that are off the beaten track we provide a valuable service, but we also recognize the importance of the broadcasters and news agencies as editorial gatekeepers.  Whatever the means of delivery, ultimately it is the objective judgement of others that confirms the quality and relevance of what we produce.

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FIVE MYTHS ABOUT INTERVIEWS ON BUSINESS TV

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Some of the most common reasons companies give for NOT getting coverage on business and financial news programmes:

Broadcast interviews are too time-consuming.
Having broadcasters’ crews at an event can be demanding, disruptive and time-consuming. It’s equally true that a CEO’s busy schedule can’t always accommodate a tour of broadcasters’ studios. Our solution – used over many years by clients as varied as Gold Fields, Standard Bank, WPP and Zurich Financial Services – is to set up outside broadcast facilities at the announcement venue. With our own producer and crew on site we can deliver live satellite-linked interviews with major broadcasters time-efficiently from almost anywhere in the world. As a bonus, an unusual and interesting location can enhance the story.

Our CEO is too busy on an important day.
On the day of any major announcement a CEO’s time is pressured. As financial professionals, investors and commentators increasingly rely on broadcast and on-line media for news and up-to-date information, many companies believe that broadcast interviews are just too important to miss out. We make the broadcast process as calm, controlled and convenient as possible and can deliver as many as five international interviews in an hour on channels such as CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC World and CNN without a CEO leaving his or her chair.

Broadcasters aren’t interested in our company.
This may be true, but sometimes broadcasters simply don’t know enough about a company to decide whether or not they are interested. A fresh objective eye on a business and how it tells its story may help to raise its profile with broadcasters.

Broadcasters will send a reporter if they are interested.
Newsrooms face many demands on limited resources and stories tend to fall into ‘must have’, ‘nice to have’ or ‘not interested’ categories. For any company that knows major broadcasters don’t follow its announcements regularly it can be a lottery to rely on crews attending an announcement.

We don’t need broadcast coverage.
Today few companies can afford to ignore the importance of broadcast coverage. Business and financial professionals world-wide use broadcast and web channels as primary sources because editorial output is specifically targeted to their needs, selected on merit by trusted gatekeepers and augmented with constantly updated market information. Convergence of broadcast and on-line media allows viewers to access and share broadcast content conveniently across time zones.

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WHAT CAN TV NEWS CHANNELS DO FOR AN EVENT?

The answer may seem obvious, but there are circumstances in which it’s also useful to ask what they CAN’T do.

Outside of major sports events, not all TV channels around the world are set up to service the needs of broadcasters in other countries. TV news-gathering operations are great at producing timely coverage of news relevant to their viewers, but some of them don’t have the staff, systems and experience needed to meet the potential requirements of broadcasters in other countries.

Even experienced PR professionals are sometimes surprised to find that having a local ‘host’ broadcaster for an event such as an international conference or exhibition secures coverage on local channels, but won’t necessarily go further. It’s much more challenging to get live feeds, recorded material and satellite-linked interviews to overseas and international broadcasters and agencies. Unfortunately some event organizers only discover this when the coverage they expected has failed to happen.

When we undertake projects such as Dubai’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks, the World Petroleum Conference or UNCTAD XIII, there’s a lot of work involved – research, media relations, satellite bookings, transmission schedules – which means that we can be most effective when we get involved at an early stage. Even at the last minute we may be able to help but, sadly, after the event is just too late.