What Is Actually in a News Feed Package, and What Is Not?

The question we hear most

Almost every first call about a news feed package starts the same way: what exactly arrives in my inbox or on my ingest server? It is a fair question, because the phrase covers a range of things, and a producer working to a bulletin deadline has no time to discover the gap between what they imagined and what was delivered.

I shoot a good share of the material that goes into these packages, so I will answer from the point of view of someone standing behind the camera. A news feed package is finished, ready-to-air video and clips, supplied with clear metadata, turned around quickly enough to be useful to a news programme. That is the whole idea, and the rest of this piece fills in the detail.

Nothing here is complicated, but the details matter, and they are easier to agree before a shoot than after one.

What arrives in the package

A package is built around what the desk can put straight into a running order. Usually that means a main cut of the story, a set of shorter clips from the same shoot, and a few clean shots without graphics or captions so your editors can build their own sequence if they prefer.

Each file carries its metadata: a plain slug, the location, the date and time of filming, who shot it, and a short note on what is in the pictures. I write those notes myself on site, while the detail is fresh, because a clip described as general view of crowd helps nobody at eleven at night.

Audio is supplied as recorded, with natural sound kept on its own track where we can manage it, so your team decides how much of the street or the hall stays in the mix.

• Main cut of the story
• Shorter clips from the same shoot
• Clean shots without graphics
• Slug, location, time and operator on every file

What a package does not include

The second half of the answer is the one people skip. A news feed package is not a commissioned documentary, and it is not a substitute for your own reporter. We supply pictures and sound with accurate description; we do not write your script, voice your piece or decide your editorial line.

It also does not cover a full live outside broadcast. If you need a multi-camera live link with a signal path and backup routes, that sits under our live signal management and video operation work, and it is quoted separately. Mixing the two up is the commonest source of surprise, so I raise it early in any conversation.

Archive research and rights clearance for third-party footage sit outside the package as well, unless we agree otherwise in writing before work begins.

Turnaround in practice

Fast turnaround is easy to promise and harder to explain, so here is how it goes. On a typical news day the footage comes off the cameras, is checked on a monitor for focus, exposure and sound, and is logged before anything leaves the building. That check takes minutes, but skipping it is how soft shots reach air.

Delivery then depends on the route we agreed with you: a direct upload to your ingest point, a transfer to a shared location, or a hand-off to a distribution partner. Our distribution manager, Ewan Campbell, keeps the schedule and file standards for each client, so the format you receive matches the one your system expects.

In mid autumn, early dark and unsettled weather change how we plan. Daylight is shorter, so shoots are scheduled earlier, and we allow for wet-weather kit and slower travel on the road.

What we need from you

The better the brief, the cleaner the package. Before a shoot I like to know the story in a sentence, the location and any access arrangements, the deadline for first pictures and the deadline for the finished cut. If there is a person to be filmed, tell me whether they have agreed to it.

I also ask about technical standards: frame rate, resolution, file format and how you name your files. These are quick to answer if you have a house style, and they save a conversion step that would otherwise cost time on the night.

If something changes on the day, such as a delayed press conference or a venue moved at short notice, a phone call is better than a message. We would rather adjust the plan than deliver pictures that no longer fit the story.

• The story in one sentence
• Location and access details
• Deadlines for first pictures and final cut
• Format, frame rate and file naming

Questions people ask next

Once the basics are clear, producers tend to follow up with a few practical points. Can we reuse the clips in later bulletins? That depends on the terms agreed at the start, so we put usage in writing in the quotation. Can you cover a story at short notice? Often yes, within crew availability, and Fiona MacLeod, our head of operations, will tell you honestly if we cannot.

People also ask whether we can supply the same story to more than one outlet. We can deliver to several recipients, and the way that is priced and permitted is set out in the confirmation you receive.

If your question is not here, the contact page is the right place to ask it, and a reply comes from a person who knows the work.