One of the biggest annual broadcasts of the year is getting set for its second year. On Air is a 24 hour, around the world live broadcast completely run by students and young people. Hosted by the Media Talent Manifesto with support from broadcast experts and tech providers, On Air is now fielding student parrticipants and industry partners. This year’s broadcast kicks off on October 22.

Last year’s On Air started in Brisbane, Australia. Each participating university or student group provided an hour of live content before handing off to the next time zone to the west, wrapping up in Los Angeles. Other participating cities included Cape Town, São Paulo, Stuttgart, Bergen, London, Washington DC, and San Francisco with a total of 17 institutions participating. The entire series of last year’s broadcast is available on the Media Talent Manifesto YouTube page.

The 2026 edition of On Air will be hosted at the University of Westminster’s Harrow Media Campus. On Air 2026 will also expand its content focuses to include Culture, News, Sport, Film and Kids, with the goal of creating a wider range of opportunities for students across genres. Industry partners for the event include the BBC, and sports industry news and networking platform SVG Europe will serve as headline partner for On Air Sport.

Based in the UK, Media Talent Manifesto was formed to address the shortage of diverse media technical and engineering talent across the media technology sector. Its other initiatives include Ignite, a mentoring program for widening ethnic diversity in the media industry; the World Skills Cafe, an annual thinktank at the IBC Show for boosting skills and diversity, and a Neurodiversity support program which includes mentorship and professional support.

If you are interested in participating in On Air 2026, as a sponsor contact email Carrie Wootten. If you would like to volunteer time or services to help go here.

Start watching last year’s On Air broadcast, with an introduction from On Air’s London studio here: