Top 5 Media Monitoring Services & Tools in The UK (2025 Guide)

Looking to stay on top of who is covering your brand or your clients in the United Kingdom?

The UK media landscape can be quite varied, with broadcast, print (often hidden behind paywalls), online, and social making for a colourful mix. The problem is that handling everything at once requires a comprehensive media monitoring solution that covers all media channels.

Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of the best media monitoring services for the UK market to help you track mentions, identify trends, and strengthen your earned media strategy. You’ll also learn which features are must-haves for UK-focused tools.

What is UK Media Monitoring?

Media monitoring in the United Kingdom is the systematic process of tracking and analysing print, online, social, and broadcast media to gather insights into how a business, organisation, or individual is represented across the UK media landscape.

How is media monitoring different in the UK?

The UK’s media mix—national press, tabloids, and regional outlets—is fast-moving. But print and broadcast are still leading. Surprised?

Here's the trick: many major outlets—like The Telegraph—restrict content and fall under the UK-specific NLA licence, which governs how print media is shared. That’s why it’s essential to use fully licensed monitoring tools.

So the first thing to look at when planning media monitoring strategy for UK market is–choose a service like Prowly, that tracks all formats, including paywalled print, online, social, and broadcast.

Top 5 media monitoring tools in the UK

We've reviewed the top five media monitoring tools for the UK market, along with their pricing and key features, so that you can find the best solution for your needs.

Note that, unfortunately, most tools do not offer transparent pricing—it’s usually necessary to get in touch with them to receive a custom quote.

UK Media Monitoring Services Overview

#1 Prowly

💸 Pricing: From £209 per month

Prowly is more than just a media monitoring tool—it’s your all-in-one digital PR platform for managing every stage of the PR workflow.

From media outreach and journalist discovery to monitoring coverage and tracking backlinks, it’s tailored for digital PR pros who want maximum impact with fewer tools.

Top features:

• Comprehensive media monitoring across online, print, broadcast, and social channels—helping you stay on top of your brand presence, wherever it appears.
• Backlink tracking so you can measure not just exposure, but also SEO value, by tracking articles that link to your target URLs. Build dashboards with backlink-rich mentions and sort them by domain authority using data backed by Semrush.
• Real-time alerts and sentiment analysis to keep you informed of media spikes and tone shifts.
• Advanced hashtag tracking—monitor #journorequest and other high-value hashtags with precise filters for topics like travel or finance.
• Audience & Traffic insights powered by Semrush, integrated into the Media Database—so you can target high-ranking media outlets based on relevancy, reach, and SEO value.
• Media Database with 1M+ journalist contacts, plus tools for email pitching, tagging, and campaign management.
• Custom dashboards and widgets to report on what matters most—mentions by country, domain rank, sentiment, or category (e.g. Advertising industry).

💡 No need to juggle multiple tools for backlinks, targeting, outreach, and reporting—Prowly brings it all together in one place.

#2 Roxhill

💸 Pricing: Custom pricing

Roxhill is a UK-focused media intelligence tool designed specifically for PR professionals who need deep insights into journalists and media outlets.

Media monitoring features include journalist profiles, real-time media alerts, advanced search filters, and email analytics. It also offers a comprehensive media database with direct journalist contact details.

Top features:

• Smart Folder Organization: Automatically categorizes media mentions into Smart Folders based on brand pillars, spokespeople, and themes. 
• Automated Metrics & Sentiment Analysis: Assigns sentiment, campaign themes, and other custom metrics to coverage, streamlining reporting processes. 
• Integrated PR Tools: Combines media monitoring with a comprehensive media database and outreach tools, enhancing the efficiency of PR campaigns.  

#3 Vuelio

💸 Pricing: Custom pricing

Vuelio is a comprehensive media monitoring and PR management tool that provides strong coverage of the UK media landscape.

Media monitoring features include real-time news tracking, social media listening, sentiment analysis, and broadcast monitoring. It also offers a robust media database with journalist and influencer contacts, press release distribution, and a built-in PR CRM.

Top features:

• Unlimited Keyword & Coverage Monitoring: Offers flat-fee plans with no limits on keywords or coverage, tracking across online, print, broadcast, and social media. 
• Integrated Media & Political Databases: Provides access to extensive media and political contact databases, facilitating targeted outreach. 
• Customizable Reporting Tools: Enables users to generate tailored reports and dashboards, enhancing the evaluation of PR efforts. 

#4 Meltwater

💸 Pricing: Custom pricing

Meltwater is a global media monitoring and intelligence tool that provides in-depth insights across news, social media, and broadcast channels.

Media monitoring features include real-time alerts, AI-driven sentiment analysis, social listening, and competitive benchmarking. It also offers a vast media database with journalist contacts, press release distribution, and advanced analytics to measure PR impact.

Top features:

• AI-Powered Monitoring with Mira: Utilizes AI assistant ‘Mira’ for real-time media monitoring and insights across various channels. 
• Comprehensive Media Intelligence: Covers over 270,000 online news sources, print publications, TV/radio broadcasts, and social media platforms. 
• Advanced Sentiment & Trend Analysis: Offers sophisticated tools for sentiment analysis and trend detection, aiding in strategic decision-making.

#5 Cision

💸 Pricing: Custom pricing

Cision is a leading media monitoring and PR platform in the US with extensive global coverage, offering powerful tools for tracking media impact and managing press outreach.

Media monitoring features include real-time news alerts, AI-powered sentiment analysis, social media tracking, and broadcast monitoring. It also has a vast media database with journalist contacts, press release distribution, and a PR CRM for campaign management.

Top features:

• Extensive Media Coverage: Monitors a vast array of sources, including print, broadcast, online, and social media, offering real-time tracking. 
• Cision Communications Cloud®: Combines media monitoring, database management, analytics, and social media distribution in one platform. 
• Advanced Analytics & Reporting: Delivers in-depth insights into media coverage, including sentiment analysis and share of voice metrics.  

12 features to look for in UK media monitoring services

If you're looking to monitor your brand's reputation online and aren't sure what to look for in a media tracking service (especially for the UK), here are some features to pay attention to when shopping around.

#1 Coverage

When we say "coverage," we mean two things.

One, the area it covers, as some tools focus on specific regions of the world. Furthermore, some services will be better at providing mentions from the UK, while others are focused more on the US market.

Two, coverage of available platforms, such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, print and broadcast, and others.

💡 Ideally, you should choose a platform that provides access to your most important channels and regions for a holistic view of your brand presence.

#2 Content behind paywalls, NLA licence, and UK media coverage

Many UK media outlets – especially established print outlets like The Telegraph – limit online content access with subscription models. They are covered under the NLA licence (Newspaper Licensing Agency), which governs how copyrighted articles are shared.

This can pose a serious blind spot for brands, as influential stories or industry mentions may go unnoticed if your media monitoring tool doesn’t have licensing agreements in place.

And if you're working in the UK market one thing is sure–you’ll need access to this licensed press content.

Ideally, you should choose a platform that provides access to both mainstream and hard-to-reach sources, including those behind paywalls–like Prowly that supports NLA content for every Pro member.

💡 Prowly offers print monitoring powered by licensed content from 7,000+ outlets total, including national and regional UK press. Through its integration with LexisNexis, you get compliant access to premium print coverage—all in one place.

Whether it’s a feature in the national magazine or a niche mention in a local daily, Prowly helps you spot it, measure its value, and incorporate it into your reporting.

👉 Want to make the most of your print coverage? Discover how to turn print media monitoring into a powerful part of your PR strategy.

#3 Real-time alerts

When set up for the right keywords or hashtags, the real-time insights let you prevent minor problems from escalating into crises as well as find opportunities in your competitors' problems. You can find out if a major crisis is brewing not just around your brand, but also - your competitors.

Of course, you may also get daily, weekly or monthly summaries according to your needs.

👉 Strategy example: media monitoring for reactive PR

One of the most effective ways to practice reactive PR is by tapping into live journalist requests.

💡 Social media hashtags like #journorequest and #bloggerrequest are goldmines for spotting real-time media opportunities—and media monitoring tools help you to never miss a beat.

With Prowly, you can take this a step further by setting up precise hashtag filters for niche topics, like travel or finance. This way, you cut through the noise and only see the most relevant media requests for your brand or client.

Want to make it even easier?

Create email alerts based on these filters and get relevant requests delivered straight to your inbox.

💡 While alerts are often associated with crisis monitoring (such as spikes in negative mentions), you can also use them as your personal opportunity tracker—a kind of curated "newsletter" that helps you jump on journalist requests before anyone else.

#4 Sentiment analysis

When someone mentions you, it's pretty easy to tell how they feel about your brand at a glance. But you don't always have the time to spare it.

Choose a tool with sentiment analysis: the ability to automatically decipher how people perceive your brand.

This not only saves massive amounts of time but can also send you alerts when there is a sudden spike of negative mentions, which is a tell-tale sign of a crisis in making.

#5 Reporting and analytics

Good media monitoring tools let you create dashboards and reports with key metrics that are relevant to your client or business. You should get an overview of your mentions, the sentiment behind them, the total reach, share of voice, and other important PR metrics.

But it doesn’t end there.

For PR professionals who care about impact beyond exposure, tracking backlinks is crucial.

#6 Backlink tracking for smarter PR measurement

Backlinks in media coverage are more than just vanity metrics—they directly influence your SEO performance and domain authority. With backlink tracking, you can monitor not just how many articles mention your brand, but how many actually link back to your website or product page.

In Prowly, this is made simple. When building a monitoring query, you can specify your target URL—like your homepage or a specific landing page. This allows you to track only those mentions that include a backlink.

From there, you can analyse:

• The quantity and quality of those backlinks
• The domain authority of referring media outlets (powered by Semrush data)

For reporting, you can set up a dedicated dashboard that lists all articles with backlinks, filtered and sorted by key criteria—such as media category, country, or domain rank. This gives you a clear picture of which PR efforts drive real SEO value.

💡 If you're running a backlink acquisition campaign, use Prowly’s Media Database to group targets by audience demographics and traffic insights, assign tags to track progress, and monitor results directly in your custom dashboards. You’ll know exactly which media tiers are delivering valuable links—and which ones aren’t.

#7 Domain authority: The SEO twist to digital PR

Modern digital PR combines the storytelling power of traditional media outreach with an online spin that benefits search visibility.

One key performance indicator? The domain authority of the media outlets where your stories appear.

In Prowly, you can create widgets to display top-performing mentions based on the criteria that matter most to your strategy. For example:

• Show only mentions from high-authority domains
• Filter by country, estimated reach, or sentiment
• Highlight mentions from specific verticals—such as the Advertising industry—that offer the most value to your brand

How can you measure how well your PR campaign landed with high-quality, reputable outlets?

💡 You can simply generate a report that lists positive or neutral mentions, sorted by domain authority. This allows you to tie your PR success not just to visibility, but to the long-term SEO benefits it brings.

#8 Support and onboarding

Configuring queries can be time-consuming and complex, especially when aiming for precise results.

Hands-on onboarding assistance and quick access to a real person can make or break your experience. And when coverage is missed (because it happens), you'll want a reliable customer support team that doesn’t keep you waiting.

That's why the best media monitoring tools offer more than just software; they come with a knowledgeable and responsive support team to help you get the most out of the platform.

💡 Before choosing a tool, ask what’s included in onboarding, how support is handled, and whether it's part of basic pricing or an add-on.

#9 Custom query building

Whether you’re tracking a product launch or analysing competitor buzz, query flexibility is key.

Getting relevant results starts with setting up custom monitoring queries that go beyond basic keywords. A powerful media monitoring tool should let you fine-tune your searches with:

• Boolean operators
• Inclusion/exclusion filters
• URL tracking
• Domain rank prioritisation
• Language or region-specific parameters

This helps you focus on what really matters, avoid irrelevant noise, and tailor your monitoring to specific campaigns, verticals, or target audiences.

#10 Organizing and working with mentions

Monitoring hundreds of mentions is one thing. Making sense of them is another. Look for tools that help you organize and prioritize your results so you don’t get overwhelmed.

In Prowly, you can:

• Assign Tiers to mentions based on media outlet value
• Mark key mentions as Favourites
• Add Tags for campaigns, clients, or sentiment
• Filter mentions by region, category, domain authority, and more

This structure allows you to quickly zero in on what’s important and create segmented reports that actually tell a story—perfect for multi-client agencies or brands juggling many campaigns.

#11 Ease of use (User experience)

Don’t overlook the day-to-day usability of the platform, because media monitoring is a task you and your team will be doing daily. If the interface is clunky, slow, or hard to navigate, adoption suffers and so does your ROI.

Choose a tool with a clean, intuitive UX that’s easy to learn with thoughtful design choices that support productivity. A well-designed dashboard, drag-and-drop functionality, and clearly labelled filters can cut hours from your reporting and daily workflows.

💡 Always take the free trial. If it feels frustrating to use within the first hour, it’s not the one.

#12 Pricing structure and hidden costs

Media monitoring pricing can be tricky. Some tools offer a low starting price—but only for a limited set of features. Others might charge extra for:

• Additional users
• Backlink or sentiment data
• Media database access
• Mentions volume
• Premium support or onboarding

💡 Before committing, ask what’s included in the base price, what add-ons are charged separately, and how flexible the pricing is as your needs grow. Also, check whether NLA-licensed content (for UK coverage) is included or requires an extra fee.

Transparency in pricing = fewer surprises down the line.

Tips for effective media monitoring in the UK

Once you have your tool for media monitoring, it's important to know that just having the right toolset is not quite enough. Here are some tips to ensure you get the best value from media monitoring software.

Set up relevant keywords

Besides your brand name, make sure to cover relevant keywords around your product.

For example, if you represent a shoe brand, you'll wish to track your brand name and keywords such as "running shoes," "outdoor footwear," "lightweight shoes," and others that are relevant for your target audience.

Monitor regional and national press

To understand the bigger picture, monitor the entire UK media landscape, but don't forget to include regional papers and press.

Track your competitors

Add your competitors' brand names to the mix so you can stay on top of their online presence. Thanks to real-time mentions, you can track an ongoing crisis that you can use to your advantage.

Track TV and radio mentions

While online media monitoring should be your primary concern, the UK still has strong TV and radio landscapes that are worth dedicating time and attention to.

Analyze sentiment regularly

Great media monitoring software does sentiment analysis by default for each mention. As these analyses come in, monitor for major trends and changes to see how your target audience perceives you.

Regularly review data and adjust strategies

Based on the metrics in your dashboards, you may adjust your public relations strategy. For example, a great response to a particular campaign can be a sign to continue with similar messaging and platform placement.

Time to get moving

The UK is a unique market for media monitoring because traditional press and TV are very much alive and play a pivotal role in public perception.

While monitoring online sources is a great start, it often won't be enough to give you a clear overview of how your target audience perceives your brand.

A good media monitoring tool does all of the heavy lifting while you analyze and interpret your results, allowing you to adjust your strategy on the go.

With Prowly, you get all the features needed to monitor your online and offline presence, build relationships with journalists, and create and send great press releases all in one place.