June gave us the hottest day of the year, but also another award, a ton of domestic and international client work and a Media Green Paper. Here’s how the month looked.
BF MEDIA’S NEWS
June saw us take home Small Consultancy of the Year at the PRCA Dare Awards.
We are thrilled to be the first specialist PR agency to win two agency of the year awards.
Huge thanks to our clients for their trust, to the team for their consistency and brilliance week in week out, and to the PRCA judges for the recognition.
We have also given the BF Media website a new look!
You can find our latest case studies and company news , worth taking a look.
WORK WE DELIVERED
We started the month supporting EE’s Yes Boys campaign, tackling harmful masculinity content reaching boys through football.
A day later attention switched to Ancestry, highlighting the stories of 25 women who shaped British history but were left out of official records.
We helped Airbnb and the WSL launch their £1 million Player Accommodation Fund, which gives women’s football players access to short-term housing during transfer periods.
We amplified Snapchat’s research into how Gen Z is changing what it means to be a football fan through online platforms.
Then it was off to New York to announce Wise’s Ultimate Football Fan competition, with former Premier League and USA goalkeeper Brad Friedel.
Back in the UK we got Strongbow’s research into the feeling of that first refreshing sip out to regional broadcasters and then it was supporting Philips on their annual Future Health Index Report which this year looked into how AI can support NHS clinicians, save time, see more patients and reduce the administrative burden contributing to staff burnout.
And finally, landing stories for Vinted and Ford across national print and online media.
The month in numbers
- 778 pieces of coverage across 9 campaigns
- 152 pieces of TV coverage
- 18 pieces of national coverage, including BBC, Sky, The Sun, Fox News and many more
INDUSTRY NEWS
The Media Green Paper
On June 23, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport released its Media Green Paper, a public consultation called “Watch This Space: A New Strategic Direction for UK Media.”
Here the government is sharing its ideas on the future of UK broadcasting. Looking into how people will watch TV, how public service media can stay relevant, and how trusted news can remain visible as more people get information from social media instead of traditional broadcasters.
And, why does this matter? The data shows a big change in how people get their news. Over half of UK adults now use social media to get their information; 75% for 16 to 24 year olds. YouTube is now the top service for children aged 4 to 15. And in 2025, online news passed traditional TV for the first time. Now the government wants to act on this.
The paper asks if digital platforms should do more to help people find trusted public service content, and if algorithms could be leveraged to make this content easier to find. The concern behind it is bigger than it first appears. As more people get their news through platforms rather than broadcasters, misinformation becomes easier to spread, and harder to challenge. The government wants to explore whether those same algorithms could be used to actively promote trusted news sources like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in people’s feeds. If the algorithm is already shaping what people see, the argument goes, why not use it to make sure trusted journalism is seen?
You can say there are two sides to this:
Yes, more people are getting their news from X, Instagram, Tiktok, etc. It is the wild west. No editorial standards, no checks, and misinformation at a scale we have never seen before. If that is where the audience is, they should at least have a chance of encountering journalism that someone is accountable for.
But we do not live in a country where the government gets to decide what people see. A significant chunk of the population does not trust the BBC or ITV as neutral sources of truth. For them, pushing mainstream broadcaster content to the top of their feed is not a solution to misinformation. It is misinformation. There are also serious questions about who gets to decide what counts as trustworthy.
WHO DID BROADCAST GOOD AND WHO DID BROADCAST BAD
Gary Lineker on ITV
On Saturday 20th June, Gary Lineker turned up as a guest pundit on ITV’s World Cup coverage, his first broadcast appearance since leaving the BBC in May of last year. The segment started with Lineker saying “Thank you very much for joining us on ITV for this one. Another day, another game, another channel.” When interrupted by a joking Laura Woods he apologised and blamed it on “old habits”. Charming, a bit cheeky, and he didn’t have to spell out anything. It didn’t take long for him to take a second swipe at his old employer, comparing ITV’s Times Square studio to the BBC’s decision to broadcast from Salford.
Except he wasn’t just there to analyse a game and throw not so friendly fire at the BBC.
He’s presenting The Box, a new primetime ITV gameshow, starting September of this year. So what better place to introduce him as a new member of the ITV family than a World Cup panel. With this short interview, ITV were able to promote an upcoming show with more reach and more warmth than any press release could manage. The BBC dig did double duty too, it got him a viral clip, and it drew a clean line between his old home and his new one.
Lineker said so himself, days later on his own podcast. He explained the whole appearance was for “purely professional reasons”: promoting The Box, and picking up a couple of mentions for his Netflix show while he was at it.
Great use of broadcast as PR.
You can watch the clip here: https://youtube.com/shorts/hTNuHF_EVnM?si=_vEjpQYKHwPbUfch
Jermaine Jenas on Good Morning Britain
Nearly two years after losing his BBC presenting role following allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by female colleagues, Jermaine Jenas spoke about it publicly in a Good Morning Britain interview.
From a PR perspective, the decision made sense. Two female presenters, one of the UK’s most watched morning programmes, a willingness to face difficult questions rather than stay silent. If the goal was to demonstrate accountability and begin rebuilding trust, it was a credible strategy.
The problem was the execution. Real accountability requires putting yourself last. But throughout the interview, the focus kept coming back to what he had lost, the consequences he had faced, the position he found himself in. The language described regret, not remorse. And there is a meaningful difference between “I made a mistake” and “I behaved inappropriately.” One talks about consequence and the other refers to conduct.
Better media preparation would have helped. He was not walking into a controlled environment. He was walking into a live interview where the direction of questioning was never going to be his to manage. When that becomes clear on air, emotional responses take over, and the narrative ends up somewhere very different from where you intended. In Jenas’s case, the opposite of what he was most likely looking for.
There is also a conversation about the platform. Good Morning Britain gives visibility, but visibility is not the same as the right environment. If the goal was genuine reflection and rebuilding trust, a faster paced breakfast show may not be the place to do it. He most likely could have done best with a longer format that would have given him the space to say what actually needed to.
LOOKING AHEAD: July
June has had the hottest day on record (among other things), so let’s see what July has to offer:
We start with Wimbledon already underway and running until the 12th of July, clashing directly with the World Cup final on the 19th.
This is followed by The Open Championship, which will run from the 16th to the 19th.
As a great gateway to get away from sport, the 8th of July marks 30 years since the Spice Girls released Wannabe.
The UK could have a new Prime Minister as early as the 17th of July. And just some days later, Parliament heads into summer recess on the 23rd,
Finally on the 30th, Greater Manchester goes to the polls to elect a new mayor.
