Author: Tim

Sirius and Podshow divorce

So satellite radio will no longer broadcast a select number of podcasts. This news broke a few days ago, but I honestly don’t think it demonstrates much other than Sirius and Podshow decided that the experiment was over. Does this mean podcasting is waning? I doubt it… I have to question the original premise… content that has a major feature of being freely available 24/7 on the Internet via an RSS feed, and playable on demand was also being featured in particular time slots via a subscription service that required additional equipment. Hmmm. Wonder why that didn’t take off? Siriusly (heh)… I have to believe most listeners were shifting towards the on-demand content rather than waiting with bated breath for the next episode of Dawn and Drew to come through the satellites. Why wait? If you had a satellite radio, I’m guessing you had access to a podcatcher and a computer.

Let’s also face it… the shows that were featured on Sirius may have been too niche for a broader audience, as some have suggested. Bottom line… the satellite market probably is not the next logical place for podcasting growth. If podcasters are looking for over the air distribution, the best bet may be the continuing conversion of mobile phones with MP3 players.

Ahhhh, yeah… I believe that’s a semi-unintentional iPhone reference. I keep thinking that faster data transfer, plus vast networks, plus great players means effortless wireless delivery. There are (bad) methods where this works now, but I think the days of needing a computer to sync a podcast to a player may seem quaint in the not so distant future. And the (failed?) Sirius-Podshow experiment will be a distant memory then as well.

School grants

Olympus is doing something nice to foster podcasting in schools:

For schools looking to explore the frontiers of podcasting, Olympus and education software developer Tool Factory have launched a new grant program specifically for teachers. The program supplies mixing and recording hardware and software valued at $3,000.

Details are here. I’ve never used any of their equipment, but there are certainly a lot of deserving schools out there that could put some podcast gear to good use!

Podcast expansion

Great article from our friends north of the border on the expansion of podcasting. It begins:

University professors do it, but worry their students will stop coming to class, and politicians hope for a popularity boost because of it. Tourists rely on it to give them directions and prevent them from looking like, well, tourists. Last Christmas was Queen Elizabeth’s first time, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration just started doing it to alert the public to drug safety advisories. As of this month, CBC Radio will be doing a lot more of it.

As podcasting becomes more mainstream, will we see early adopters become frustrated, or become excited about the increasing audience? Probably a little of both… even though broadcasters are squeezing a lot of the early indie podcasts off the top 10 charts at iTunes, I think competition is always a good thing. The real question for NPR might be, will people stop listening to their radios and get their programming in a place where the annual pledge drive can’t reach them, or is very easy to skip past?

Switching servers

Things might get a little whacky here at the blog over the course of the next 24-48 hours… hopefully the server transition will go smoothly and things will return to normal sooner rather than later.

Footsteps

Remember that Edison Study on podcasting from a few weeks ago? The one that said this:

While awareness of podcasting is up significantly, usage of audio podcasting is only up slightly. Awareness of podcasting has jumped from 22 percent in 2006 to 37 percent in 2007. In that time, those having ever listened to an audio podcast have risen from 11 percent to 13 percent.

Slow growth, according to the study… but something jumped out at me as I read an article detailing the report from the radio industry publication Radio Ink. Note that the report only looked at audio podcasting, totally ignoring the huge growth in video podcasting. Now, it’s kind of an apples and oranges thing because the radio industry is far more concerned about audio podcasts, but I think it shows that the Edison Study’s numbers are fairly incomplete since it leaves out the entire video platform. Would inclusion of those numbers make a difference? Perhaps, perhaps not… but let’s make sure we don’t latch onto numbers that provide an incomplete picture of the growth of the overall podcast industry.

Oh, and just in case you don’t think the radio industry is getting a bit defensive… this from Bill Rose, senior vice president of marketing at Arbitron (the co-sponsor of the study):

[T]he widely held perception that people who use new digital platforms listen less to over-the-air radio is false. In fact, users of digital radio platforms spend just as much time listening to over-the-air radio as the average consumer.

Translation… this podcasting thing is SO in radio’s rearview mirror. Yeah… but it’s gaining, sir.

Boosting your bottom line

Interesting article in today’s Chicago Sun-Times regarding podcasting… this jumped right off the screen:

LaRue Highsmith, veteran producer of educational programming for health professionals, recently began spicing up his online media mix by offering physicians, clinical lab professionals and others the option of downloading his Webcast programs as podcasts…
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He estimates that podcasting increases the audience for his conferences by about 15 percent, which in turn boosts the fees he can charge his clients, such as Abbott Laboratories. Professionals who attend the courses can earn professional education credits.

Hmmm… how would you like to boost your business by 15 percent?