BBC Tweaks Podcast Service: All in One Place

The BBC has refurbished its podcast service and has made all the Beeb's audio content available in one place. The podcast directory is split into two categories: Editor's Pick and Recently Launched. There's also a 'quick find' search bar and the directory is further broken down into radio station or genre.

There are currently around 200 podcasts available to listen to, with content ranging from football to Scott Mills Daily. While each podcast varies in length, most have a file size of are around 3MB, and can be downloaded as an MP3 file. Or, if you don't want to download, you can listen to the content straight from your browser.

Have a look at the BBC podcast directory.

Podcast.com Announces the Top 10 Podcasts of 2007

Treedia Labs, a leading media aggregation and distribution company, announced today its Podcast.com "Top 10 Podcasts of the Year" Award for 2007. Podcast.com is the premier podcast destination that provides access to a growing list of over 43,000 curated and updated podcasts representing more than 175,000 hours of audio and video content. Podcast.com's unique solution for content consumers also presents an unsurpassed way for content providers to reach an audience that consumes podcasts via the Web, mobile phones and other multimedia devices.

Each year, Podcast.com tallies the total number of times a program has been accessed by consumers. In 2007, Podcast.com tracked over one million podcast access connections via the Podcast.com portal. The top 10 Podcasts represent those items that were accessed the most in 2007.

Podcast.com's Top 10 Podcasts of the Year Award recipients are:

1. World Soccer Daily Podcast - independent
2. CNN News Update - mainstream
3. ESPN Radio Daily Podcast - mainstream
4. Geek News Central Podcast - independent
5. BBC's Best of Today - mainstream
6. NOVA - PBS - mainstream
7. Slate Magazine Daily Podcast - mainstream
8. 60 Minutes Podcast - The Full Broadcast - mainstream
9. Face the Nation Podcast - mainstream
10. CNET News.com Daily Tech News Podcast - independent

This year's winners are enjoying the sizeable and growing audiences of downloadable media consumption. According to Edison Media Research data from 2007, more than 37 million podcasts were accessed by consumers in the US. According to Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), a group dedicated to measuring radio audiences in the UK, podcast listening increased 40-percent, to 2.7 million people throughout the UK in 2007.

The Guardian discusses Podcasting with WPF

An interview with Guardian Unlimited's Neil McIntosh

Talk about getting off on the right foot. The Guardian's first exposure to podcasting in late 2005 was hooking up with Ricky Gervais, which propelled it to first place in iTunes, and brought great exposure to the newspaper and website.

There were several reasons that promoted the Guardian to the podcast domain in earnest. First, readers wanted audio programs and were gradually subscribing to broadband internet, thus enabling them to download the programs. Second, the Guardian realized that they had much of the talent and resources required, with broadcast-experienced journalists around the world who regularly appeared on television and radio.

Persuading the company to enter the domain was not easy. First, being traditionally a text and image based entity, getting management to “do audio” was not simple. Also, BBC cast an imposing shadow, with skeptics at the Guardian questioning the rational, given BBC’s ability to flood the market with audio content. The Guardian took the leap. The decision was slightly easier due to the fact that it is not a purely for-profit company. Owned by Scotts Trust, the Guardian is able to experiment with new ideas, without having “the strict bottom line” serve as the ultimate veto early one.

The results have been very positive, have far exceeded the business case in terms of revenue and profitability. Good news for the Guardian and the industry.

What are the factors behind the success? Most important, develop talent internally. The Guardian did not “throw money at outside third parties”, but rather developed the talent internally. Its podcast team consists of a devoted group of producers and editors who have learned from experience what it takes to produce engaging shows. The Guardian does, however, use an external podcast production company for one of its podcasts.

Is the content unique for the podcasts? In most cases, the content is used in text format for the newspaper and website. However, the podcast can provide much greater detail than is possible in the newspaper and website, where space is limited. Also, the Guardian does produce some podcast-only content, such as the Islamophonic podcast.

How does the Guardian see the future of podcasting? Clearly in the mobile section. To get away from the geek factor and reach the mass market, the Guardian believes that mobile podcasting in crucial.

Monte Silver

Is European Big Media Podcasting

In all countries, Big Media (TV, Radio, Written) is indeed podcasting. Germany and France media generate a wealth of TV & video podcasts. ARD, the largest TV network in Germany releases the podcast version of Tagesschau (Daily View) shortly after the popular show is aired on television. In France, TF1 produces video podcasts as well. Despite 300,000 Aussies demanding the video version of ABC’s “Enough Rope”, server and bandwidth infrastructure can only provide the audio version.

Radio France has hundreds of audio podcasts, as do German radio networks. BBC is the largest media player in England, and Virgin Radio and the Guardian are also present. Of course, BTPodshow, the collaboration between Podshow and British Telecom is definitely worth mentioning.

In Spain, the lack of media involvement has lead people to record radio shows and create pirate podcasts. In Italy, a popular entertainment podcaster was sacked from one of the thousand Berlusconi-owned media companies after making questionable political comments. In China, big media is generally still uninvolved.

As a general rule, big media simply repackages existing content. The exception to the rule is Europe 1 in France which aggregates radio shows into a single podcast, and SWR public radio in Germany, which produces “podcast first” content.