For years, satellite media tours have offered executives the opportunity to share their message through broadcast stations across the country, all from a single broadcast studio. While the pandemic initially impacted the opportunity to conduct satellite media tours, emerging video technologies have opened up many new possibilities.
Russell Grant is the principal and founder of Live Shot Media, a one-stop video and live broadcast production company. Russell and his team of broadcast professionals have produced hundreds of radio and television media tours over the past 25 years. These tours have amplified the message of Fortune 500 and industry-leading companies and many non-profit organizations.
Look Left’s Davida Dinerman and John Moran sat down with Russell to explore how satellite media tours are evolving and what executives can do to prepare.
Conversation highlights include:
- The basics of a satellite media tour: “It’s an opportunity to come into a studio or another off-site location, and in the course of one morning—generally lasting four to five hours—[executives] do a series of round-robin interviews. Each one usually lasts about three to five minutes. They can be both live-to-air or taped at the discretion of each television station. It’s a really time-effective [way] to criss-cross the country without jet lag and get your message across in one morning.”
- How streaming video has impacted satellite media tours: “There are many [webcasts] and podcasts, and I think it’s important to be selective in terms of which of those get included in a satellite media tour. And I say that from the perspective of lessons learned. There are many people out there doing webcasts and podcasts but aren’t necessarily dedicated to generating fresh content every day or every week—it’s kind of a hobby if you will. If they’re not regularly generating new content on a scheduled basis, too often these interviews don’t air in a timely fashion.”
- The pandemic opened up new possibilities for satellite media tours: “Through the great development of [video] technology, you could do interviews from home or your office via Skype or Zoom in addition to satellite. So stations were very much receptive in terms of taking interviews and, to this day, are still using it largely in place of satellite. It allows [TV stations] a little more flexibility in not needing a satellite engineer to pull in the satellite feed.”
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