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October 19, 2006
To b-roll or not to b-roll?
by Mary Coyle
The use of vnr and b-roll packages remains under scrutiny, more than a year after The Center for Media and Democracy released its 2006 report on video news releases. And, while the media fights back against these allegations, most recently seen as a group of VNR producers banded together to form a group to lobby Washington, we continue to feel the impact.
VNRs have been on the decline for sometime, but over the past year use has dropped dramatically with public relations professionals turning more and more to b-roll packages. However, this intense scrutiny is now impacting b-rolls as well. Producers at FOX and NBC are now requiring "customized, tailored b-roll," and are no longer accepting the generic packages distributed to all media. Scrutiny from the FDA and FCC concerning accuracy seems to have prompted this change.
Despite this scrutiny, b-rolls are a valuable tool for both pr professionals and local television stations. Many times, these stations have very tight budgets, are short staffed, and rely on such packages to deliver relevant news to their viewers. So, think of b-rolls as becoming more “individualized tools” for various networks. But don’t put them out to pasture just yet…
Posted by mary_coyle at October 19, 2006 05:43 PM
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