BBC

Global Posts Strong RAJAR Q2 2026 Radio Results

Global reported Q2 2026 RAJAR audience figures showing it remains the UK’s largest commercial radio group with 29 million weekly listeners, 283 million listening hours and a 27.5% share across its brands. RAJAR data for the quarter shows radio reaches a record 51 million UK adults weekly (87% of the population) and that commercial broadcasters grew to a 55.1% share versus 42.6% for BBC services. Key Global brands highlighted include Heart (12.8 million weekly listeners), Capital (8.9 million), LBC (record 3.7 million) and Classic FM (4.5 million). Global executives Simon Pitts and James Rea commented on the strength of radio and the company’s performance.

Count Binface Highlights Shift in Political Advertising

Count Binface, a satirical candidate created by Jonathan Harvey, has emerged as a notable media property in the Clacton by-election, prompting agencies and consultants to offer creative and media support free of charge. Leagas Delaney publicly offered pro-bono creative help and has enlisted the media agency Bicycle and production capacity for traditional out-of-home placements and stunts. The story illustrates a changing political-advertising landscape driven by social virality, faux out-of-home (FOOH) tactics and public mass-reach advertising as an alternative to digital microtargeting. Recent polling cited by the article shows elevated interest in Binface nationally, while local polls and bookmakers still favour Nigel Farage.

Google Pulls Earth AI Feature After Misinformation Concerns

Google launched on July 30, 2026 a Google Earth feature letting users apply its image‑generation model Nano Banana (reported by some sources as Nano Banana 2) to create synthetic imagery over satellite maps. Journalists and data reporters quickly demonstrated the prompt‑driven tool could produce highly realistic, shareable fake satellite images—BBC reporters bypassed safeguards to generate screenshots like a toppled Eiffel Tower, a sunken Giza pyramid and a nonexistent park by the White House, and Henk van Ess highlighted politically explosive scenarios. Google said generated images were labeled and not publicly visible by default but could be screenshot and shared in ways that violated policy, and it disabled the feature shortly after launch while it develops stronger guardrails; TechCrunch reported the rollback on July 31, 2026.