The Weekly PR and Social Scoop 30.01

BBC World Service to cut 130 roles to save ￡6m in the next year?

In its bid to recoup ￡6m in the next financial year, BBC World Service has announced its plans to cut 130 jobs.??

The World Service was given a funding boost by the government in the autumn budget, but financial pressures and the subsequent two-year freeze on license fees in the UK has forecasted the corporation’s total deficit to increase to ￡492m in the 2024/25 financial year.??

Job cuts will affect both UK and international BBC personnel, with roles in the BBC Monitoring division – the international news analysis division - set to have several posts closed.??

The broadcaster said it will "continue to counter disinformation, provide emergency services in times of crisis and report from all corners of the globe".?

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30-second ad slots for Super Bowl sells for $8m-plus?

Brands including Budweiser, Pepsi, Taco Bell, Uber Eats and more are preparing to win over the 120m projected viewers of the Super Bowl on 9th February 2025, with some 30-second ad slots reportedly valued at $8m-plus.??

This year’s Super Bowl saw fierce competition amongst brands fighting for the premium ad slots, with space selling out in November and a waitlist at the ready for drop-outs.?

Broadcaster, Fox, declined to comment on the specific price tag for 30 seconds. But in an earnings call in November, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said ad space had sold out at “record pricing.” Last year, a 30-second spot went for around a reported $7m.??

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Social Scoop

Instagram’s explore page to recommend longer reel content?

Following TikTok’s reinstatement in the US, Instagram’s parent company Meta has announced its plans to start recommending 3-minute long reels on its explore page. This comes as a surprise to creators, who have previously been advised by Meta to avoid posting anything longer than 90-seconds, and that the “sweet spot for engagement is with reels 30-90 seconds long”.?

In May last year, at an?Instagram creator event, Instagram’s team specifically noted that creators shouldn’t post longer Reels because people don’t like them, and they generally see far less engagement. However, TikTok has long enabled users to post longer-form content.??

With 3-minute reels recently rolled out as a new feature, Instagram says, “Appetite around long-form content is changing, and we’ll continue to improve how reels are recommended on Instagram.”?

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Trump says Microsoft in talks to acquire TikTok US?

?According to comments recently made by Trump to reporters, Microsoft has joined the race to acquire TikTok’s US operation, joining several major parties’ “great interest in TikTok”, while confirming there are “a lot of people bidding on it.”?

Microsoft was in talks to acquire the same operation from the ByteDance-owned app in 2020, when Trump originally threatened a ban if it failed to part ways with its Chinese ownership.?

While the app recently went back online, following Trump’s executive order to delay the ban by 75 days, it is still missing from app stores. Other reported billionaire buyers include a merge proposal from Perplexity AI, with Trump also saying he’d be open to Tesla’s Elon Musk or Oracle’s Larry Ellison buying TikTok outright.??

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