Universal Information Services

TV News Clips are video files of broadcast or streaming news stories. This is the final post in our series of Key Questions for public relations professionals and corporate communicators.

What are TV News Clips?

Media monitoring is the ongoing service of comprehensively tracking the news you need. Whether you track media placements for your PR clients, or you need to capture news stories for your company, your media monitoring reports will show you individual stories matching your search. From those reports, or portal listings, clients can select specific stories they want to save or share with their client. Simply put, TV news clips are specific stories that you want to save, review, or share internally. Most broadcast monitoring services provide the ability to view your clips, but relatively few provide a service that allows you to request TV news clips, or radio clips, on an ad hoc basis.

Why it matters who provides your TV News Clips.

There are four aspects that distinguish the ability of a media monitoring firm. Quality, service, cost, and depth of coverage separates the comprehensive media monitors from other services. Below is a deeper look at each aspect.

1. Quality refers to both how high of a resolution the news programs were recorded in, as well as how high of a resolution your requested clip can be delivered. Universal Information Services is rather unique in that our entire network of all local news stations is antenna based. Over-the-air transmission provides the highest level of HD quality, above that of cable and satellite HD signals. By starting with the highest resolution, all of our TV news clips can be provided in a full-HD format rather than a lower format. This is important when displaying on large screens or for key internal stakeholders.
2. Service is probably the most important aspect when requesting TV news clips. You’ll want to use a media monitor you can count on to react immediately, even after-hours, and produce your clip almost immediately. The level of service from your provider also becomes an issue if you have questions or need help finding a specific clip. For example, Universal’s concierge service ensures that all users, even ad hoc orders, get priority service and at our lowest cost.
3. Cost is primary to some requests for TV News Clips, but secondary to others. Because we don’t know if the cost of a TV news clip may make or break your ability to get what you need, we charge all orders at the lowest rate in the industry. Our clip rates average $60/clip, but if you get a lower quote from another vendor for a TV news clip, we will match that quote and still provide our concierge level of service and the highest quality HD output. We work to exceed client expectations on every order.
4. Depth of coverage is a measure of how comprehensive your monitor is, in terms of stations, networks and streaming channels. There are a handful of news monitoring services that only record the top 100, or so, TV markets. And even then they often have big holes of markets they don’t cover. These holes can be what forces you to use a second or third option to get your TV news clips, making your work harder. Additionally, if a monitor is using cable TV or satellite TV, they often will not have the local newscasts that air on digital subchannels. Another problem with cable and satellite-based monitoring services is the frequent “carrier disputes” between the broadcaster and the retransmission service (cable or satellite). When a dispute occurs, the news monitor can lose up to 100 or more local stations, meaning none of your clips from those stations will be available. We’ve seen disputes last for months, so imagine how limiting it would be if your monitor was missing the news you needed for months at a time. Even more important is that some broadcasters only allow news monitors to provide TV news clips IF that monitor has a license from the broadcaster. Universal works to observe all copyrights and complies with all current licensing efforts. Buying clips from an unlicensed monitor could expose you or your client to costly copyright lawsuits.

KEY QUESTION: What are TV News Clips?

TV news Clips, like radio news clips, are the individual stories you need in order to review reporting accuracy, gauge the impact of your message, or share the story with your key stakeholders. Universal Information Services monitors everything while serving requests with our concierge service and training.

To learn more about our media monitoring services, or why our clients love working with Universal Information Services, connect via email. You can also find more about all services from Universal online at our Services Page.