3.3 Podcasting

O podcasting e a cauda longa

«Podcasting is about as long tail as it gets. Although there are a few highly-rated podcasts with more than 100,000 listeners/viewers, most podcasts have far smaller audiences, highly-focused on niche interests.
According to long-tail theory, these targeted audiences should be especially valuable to advertisers and marketers. Although the audiences are small, each listener or viewer is very interested in the subject, and the audiences should therefore carry commensurately higher ad pricing. (...) “Podcasting is, by its nature, a niche medium, and this is not likely to change," said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. "But podcasting delivers a level of end-user engagement that is rare in today’s multi-format world.”» (Remember Podcasting? Listeners Do. eMarketeer, APRIL 24, 2008

Podcast não descola

«despite the prevalence of MP3 players, only 13% of people over the age of 12 —some 32 million — say they have ever listened to podcasts, that is, downloaded audio or video other than songs from the Internet for later consumption.

That may have more to do with the process than the content. The two-step process required to hear podcasts — accessing and downloading — may be the reason the digital platform has not caught on. According to Bridge Ratings, the main reasons people skip podcasts are because they just are not interested (46%) or they think it is “too complicated” (39%).^{(25. Bridge Ratings Group, “Digital Media Growth Projections – Updated 4/25/07.”}Not surprisingly, younger audiences showed more interest in the technology. More than half (52%) of those who have ever listened to an audio podcast are under the age of 35. (Arbitron, “The Infinite Dial 2007: Radio’s Digital Platforms,” April 19, 2007.)

State of the news media 2008

Podcast não é rádio

«Segundo Medeiros (2005: 03) uma rádio via Internet utiliza a tecnologia streaming, o que não é o caso do formato Podcasting. Afirma também que podcast não é rádio na internet  (...) Então podemos perceber que existem dois fatores que descaracterizam o podcast como rádio. O primeiro é a forma de transmissão, e o segundo, a estrutura da programação como vimos acima de acordo com Bufarah e Cicilia Peruzzo.» fonte: Rádio na Internet: Um espaço de Experimentação, Educação e Comunicação, Paula Marques de Carvalho, 2007 ( ?)

«as características de um podcasting são opostas às de um modelo de transmissão radiofônica tradicional. A começar pela forma de transmissão que, no rádio, é em fluxo, e no podcasting é por demanda. Depois o modo de produção que, no podcasting é descentralizado e, no rádio é centralizado e institucionalizado. E ainda, os modelos de podcast, que, como vimos, podem ser, no máximo, uma metáfora, uma referência aos programas de rádio. Ao contrário do rádio, o podcasting não é difundido em broadcasting. Portanto, estando em lados conceituais tão opostos e antípodas, não há como extinguir o modelo de transmissão radiofônico convencional ou o modelo “como nós conhecemos”! Ou seja, já que são modelos antípodas, a existência de um não acarreta no desaparecimento do outro. Afinal, se o podcasting não é rádio, então o que seria o podcasting?(...) Uma nova mídia, uma verdadeira multimídia, dentro da Internet. É o que acreditamos.» fonte: «Podcasting: Um Antípoda Radiofônico» 2006 Macello Santos de Medeiros

Podcasting e a rádio

O podcast, mesmo feito pela rádio, não é rádio. É outra coisa. A tentação é compararmos, estabelecermos as diferenças e, no fim, dizermos que o futuro da rádio é o podcast.

MAs são coisas diferentes, como se pode ver aqui.

Podcasting é a nova rádio.

« This is my favorite – and I’m thinking of getting into it with partners – develop the podcasting business. Podcasting is the new radio. It allows a generation that wants control of its content to start, stop, advance and enjoy content on demand – a prerequisite. No, I’d start 100 podcasts in a single genre that I could monetize (example: podcasts that appeal to 18-34 year old males, etc). Again, the consumers would not necessarily know I also own radio stations because starting now, I’m in the content business not the tower and transmitter business. The marketing of these podcasts to the next generation will also take some innovative thinking. Perhaps we can get into that in the future.»

Primeiro grande estudo GB sobre podcasts e escuta on line

«Listening via Podcasts :4.3 million people have downloaded a Podcast and 1.87 million listen to a Podcast each week. The average Podcast user subscribes to 3.16 Podcasts and spends 53.6 minutes per week listening to them. Comedy and music are the two favourite genres. iTunes is the software of choice, used by two thirds of Podcast users to subscribe to Podcasts, while almost a quarter simply download directly from the website via their browser. 80% listen to Podcasts on their home computer and 61% listen via a portable audio / mp3 player. Podcast listening occurs throughout the day, with an evening peak when 46% of Podcast users tune in. Almost three-quarters of Podcasts users listen to Podcasts that are more than a week old. Podcasting appears to have a positive effect on live radio listening – almost 18% say they now listen to more live radio since they began downloading Podcasts; while only 8% stated they listen to less, and 31% say they are now listening to radio programmes they did not listen to previously. 58% of respondents said they would be interested in downloading Podcasts containing advertising if they were free, while only 28% responded positively to the idea of Podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.

o estudo: Podcasting and Radio Listening via Internet Survey RAJAR January 2008

200 milhões de descarregamentos nos podcasts da NPR

«The NPR Podcast Directory, which features hundreds of free podcasts produced by NPR, NPR Member stations and other public radio producers, has now reached the 617-title count with the addition of the new NPR News "In Character" series, seven podcasts from public radio station WYEP/Pittsburgh, and nine more from other station contributors. Furthermore, since launching in August 2005 with 33 titles, NPR reports that its podcasts have generated more than 200 million downloads, and they currently average 12 million downloads per month. In the fourth quarter of 2007, there were 36.5 million downloads of NPR Podcasts, which marks an increase of 19 percent over the previous quarter.»

fonte: FMQB, 11/02/08, NPR Bolsters Podcasts, Tops 200 Million Downloads

O podcasting vai substituir a rádio?

«Many people predict that podcasting ultimately will replace radio. For instance, if you are traveling on subway, you usually cannot listen to the radio. Even if you can, the number of radio stations is rather limited. In the best case, you might be able to learn about world events, but not about, say, the features of new RSS readers.

Now imagine getting up in the morning and taking your mp3 player (or connecting it to your automobile audio player) and while on your way to the office being able to listen to the news published on your favorite website, just like you used to listen to the radio. The news segments were downloaded and synchronized with the player automatically when plugged into your computer overnight. Fantastic? No. Reality! This is the possibility that podcasting provides.

So, as you can see, podcasting combines the best of the two widespread methods of distributing information: Internet and radio. You can subscribe to the pieces (podcasts) that you are interested in and listen to them when and where you want.

Isn’t that the future of radio?»

fonte: «Podcasting – technology that can kill radio?», TechWhack, 18/07/07

Não ter medo do podcasting; potenciá-lo!

O novo programa de Danny Baker, uma das figuras da rádio britânica, não passa na rádio. Ou melhor, passa. Mas não na rádio convencional. A trabalhar na BBC London FM, Baker encontrou no podcasting a solução para chegar a ouvintes de todo o mundo. Por isso, diariamente, grava All Day Breakfast Show, o programa de rádio que não passa na rádio.

NUmeros do podcasting

«According to research from The Diffusion Group, 11 percent of adult broadband users, or approximately 12 million U.S. consumers, listen to podcasts at least once per month. TDG’s report on new media predicts that by 2012 that number will grow to 24 percent of broadband users or 38.5 million people. It says that while podcasting continues to expand, two factors are keeping a lid on usage: podcasting is perceived as too complex for average consumers to use; and so they remain unaware of the quantity and quality of content available for consumption. Dale Gilliam III, director of primary research and author of the report, says this lack of understanding is due to the many ways in which pundits and marketers have used the term “podcast.”

Other findings: * Among those who listen to podcasts at least once a month, 68 percent use a portable device while 49 percent listen on a PC; * On average, users listen to 5.4 podcasts per month on a portable device and 4.7 on a PC; * On average, those who subscribe to podcast services are signed up for 4.1 different feeds; and 70 percent of users rely on iTunes to access podcasts.»

fonte: «TDG: Podcasting Audience Growing, Medium Poorly Defined by Marketers », RWOnline, 15/06/07

O podcasting à espera de se confirmar

The profitability of podcasting heading into 2007 also remains more a matter of potential than reality. In July 2006, Nielsen Analytics released a report called “The Economics of Podcasting,” which reported that 6% of U.S. adults (9 million Web users) had downloaded podcasts in the past 30 days. Almost 4 in 10, or 38%, of those downloaders said they listened to traditional radio less because of podcasting. The most successful podcasts were garnering as many as two million downloads a month. Those numbers make podcasts an attractive outlet to advertisers. With the medium still in its infancy, a few podcasts are already starting to generate income. National Public Radio has been actively attracting sponsors on its podcasts. Will it work? That is less clear. According to the Nielsen survey, 60% of survey respondents said that they “always” fast - forward past commercials»

fonte: The State of the News Media 2007

Sobre as potencialidades do podcasting

«(...) It is not quite true, therefore, that podcasting is to audio as blogging is to text. Podcasting is about “time-shifting” (listening offline to something at a time of one's own choosing, as opposed to a broadcaster's), whereas reading blogs requires a live internet connection and a screen. More subtly, podcasts are different from blogs and wikis in that they cannot link directly to other podcasts. This makes podcasting a less social, and probably less revolutionary, medium. Nonetheless, its rise has been nothing short of astonishing. Mr Curry's own podcast, The Daily Source Code, has several million listeners. Apple's iTunes, the software application and online music store that makes iPods work, currently lists 20,000 free podcasts and is adding them at a fast clip, all before podcasting's second birthday. (...) Does podcasting therefore spell the end of radio? “I don't really buy into that per se; what we're really seeing is a big mash-up of stuff,” says Mr Curry, the podfather. Podcasting, terrestrial radio and another newcomer, paid-for (ie, mostly advertising-free) satellite radio, are all carving out their niches in people's crowded media lives. The limiting factor of podcasting, says Mr Curry, is that it is “inherently asynchronous” (ie, not live). “If they find Osama bin Laden, don't go running to your iPod,” he adds. Breaking news, call-in shows (an old-fashioned form of participatory media) and other live programming will still work on terrestrial radio. This might lull radio bosses into a false sense of security, however. “I'm not sure that the average consumer is going to want to hear, you know, Joe podcasting out of his garage,” says Mark Mays, the chief executive of Clear Channel Communications, America's largest radio broadcaster with 1,200 commercial stations. Mr Mays claims that when people buy an iPod they will reduce their radio listening for a few months, but then increase it again to educate themselves about new music. “And where else to go for music than their local radio station?” asks Mr Mays. (...) The effects on radio, while not lethal, will therefore be large. Radio broadcasters understand that they need to make commercial radio less disagreeable to listen to, which above all means shorter advertising interruptions. This is why Clear Channel has introduced a campaign called “less is more”, in which it sells fewer minutes to advertisers in the hope that this will drive up ratings and prices. Historically, radio has been good at adapting. When Franklin Roosevelt gave his “fireside chats”, radios were in the living room and families gathered round them during prime time. Then television came along, and radios migrated to the car for use during rush hours. Podcasting may herald yet another migration, to a place and context yet to be determined.»

fonte: «Heard on the street»,Apr 20th 2006, From The Economist print edition

Depois do fracasso dos podcasts pagos, Gervais desiste...

Um caso a estudar:  ascensão e queda, depois dos podcasts pagos...

«Ricky Gervais is to stop making his comedy podcasts, saying he wants to "knock it on the head for a while before everyone hates us".  The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, which also featured The Office co-writer Stephen Merchant and producer Karl Pilkington, were downloaded nearly eight million times. The first 12 shows were available free but fans had to pay for the second 12. "It's getting ridiculous and someone has to make it stop," Gervais said.  "I was trying something out. I wanted to see if I could cut out the middle man and make podcasting a commercial concern. Karl never has to work again and I believe that maybe he won't," he added. (...)»

fonte: «Gervais puts a stop to podcasts», BBC news online, 22/9/06

 

Podcast e rádio - a pergunta que ainda se faz

«will folks listen to the podcast AND the station or the podcast INSTEAD OF the station?»

Mark Ramsey dá a resposta:

«Good question. And the answer is... It depends.

If the podcast is FREE and your show is LONG (e.g., a few hours long) and DAILY (or so)...

If you podcast highlights or bits or interviews of your show as online bonuses or delay the podcast for a reasonable time, I believe this will ADD to your on-air audience, i.e., "I can listen to the podcast, but to hear the REST of the content I need to listen to the station." If you podcast your entire show online on the same day it runs live, I believe you will SUBTRACT from your audience, i.e., "I can listen to the podcast, I don't need to listen to the station." And for those who don't already listen to the station, they may be reluctant to sample such a large slice of your show's pie. Tidbits, that's what they need.

If the podcast is FREE and your content is SHORT, ALWAYS REPEATING and UPDATING (e.g., newscasts)...

If you podcast the entire newscast you have the ability to sell other elements of your station. Meanwhile the news always changes and is stale as soon as the mp3 player leaves its computer. Thus you will ADD to your on-air audience.

If the podcast is FREE and your show is SHORT (e.g., a public radio show) and WEEKLY (or so)...

If you podcast the whole show you will certainly substitute the online audience for an iPod one. That's because finding one half-hour or one hour during an entire broadcast week is infinitely harder than synching your iPod to your computer on a daily basis. The more your station is about programs than about audiences, the worse off you are in podcasting those programs in their entirety in near-real time (assuming your goal is to increase listenership to the station). In the Public Radio world, for example, many of the weekly programs are podcast in their entirety. As much as I appreciate this, it absolutely reduces the listening for many would-be listeners.

Yet what is not podcast (so far as I know) is a daily sampling of Morning Edition or ATC or Fresh Air - just a sample, not the whole show. And this type of podcasting would absolutely send more listeners to their radio stations because of what's NOT on the podcast and what IS on the radio on a regular, daily basis.

This is what we mean by the term "tease." But tease with substance.

There are lots of other cases and scenarios. But they have to do with combinations of TIME, CURRENCY, BREVITY, PROGRAM POPULARITY, COST, and SCHEDULING.»

O podcasting é inimigo da rádio porque retira tempo de audição

A propósito deste texto do Radio Inside («Does podcasting cut into radio time? A new report finds the answer is yes. 38% of active podcast downloaders say they’re listening to radio less often (according to a report by Nielsen). The survey of 1,700 people also finds that more than 6% of adults — or about nine million web users — have downloaded a podcast in the past 30 days. The average time spent listening to podcasts is 44 minutes. Many stations have begun offering ad-supported podcasts but the challenge is to get folks to listen to the ads. 60% of those in the Nielsen study say they always fast forward past commercials. Women (67%) are more likely to skip ads. The other gender factor — 75% of those who described themselves as regular podcast downloaders were male.), Mark Ramsey afirma:

«Podcast listeners skip past commercials? Duh. Ever heard of TiVo? Of course they skip past commercials. But why would you have commercials on a podcast when you could have the entire podcast sponsored by a client and thus elminate the need for annoying commercials? Or use "sponsored by" messages the way public radio does. You only skip what drags on, what's annoying enough and long enough to skip. You don't skip what flashes by. Fast spots or sponsorship messages are far more trouble to skip than they are to listen through. It's HOW advertisers use podcasts - not whether thair traditional ads will be listened to - that is key. And that doesn't even begin to touch on the relevance of those ads to the listeners of the podcast. Indeed, the problem with advertising in general is a preference for tonnage over relevance - but that's another post for another time.»

Podcasts a crescer

«6,6 por cento dos americanos decarregaram recentemente um podcast e 4,4 por cento um videocast, revelam os mais recentes números da Nielsen»

fonte: Pontomedia

O lento crescimento do podcasting

«(...) according to research released on Wednesday by Nielsen//NetRatings, which found that just 6.6 percent of the U.S. adult online population--or less than 10 million users--have recently downloaded an audio podcast (within 30 days of the survey). Even fewer folks have actively pursued the newest of the new medium--just 4 percent of adults, 5.6 million users, have recently downloaded a video podcast. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, at the moment, those figures place podcasting among the more niche Web activities, such as blogging, and a long way from more popular activities like online shopping or bill paying.
In typical Internet fashion, podcasting is being adopted first by younger, more tech savvy demographics. The youthful end of the adult world, 18-24 year-olds, are nearly twice as likely to be active podcast consumers, while adults 45 and older fall mostly below the podcasting curve. (...)

fonte: «Nielsen: Podcasting Remains a Niche Activity», Mike Shields, JULY 12, 2006 -

Podcasting significa o fim da rádio?

«Does podcasting therefore spell the end of radio? “I don't really buy into that per se; what we're really seeing is a big mash-up of stuff,” says Mr Curry, the podfather. Podcasting, terrestrial radio and another newcomer, paid-for (ie, mostly advertising-free) satellite radio, are all carving out their niches in people's crowded media lives. The limiting factor of podcasting, says Mr Curry, is that it is “inherently asynchronous” (ie, not live). “If they find Osama bin Laden, don't go running to your iPod,” he adds. Breaking news, call-in shows (an old-fashioned form of participatory media) and other live programming will still work on terrestrial radio».

fonte: «Heard on the street», Economist, Apr 20th 2006, http://economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794210

É a Time que o diz (sobre o podcasting)

«Agora que os iPods se tornaram tão populares como garrafas de água e telemóveis...»

Podcasts referidos:

BBC RADIO: FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

NPR: MOST E-MAILED STORIES

NBC’s Meet the Press

Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!

THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW

ONION RADIO NEWS

maximumfun.org

(e mais...)

 

 

O medo que a rádio ainda tem do podcasting

Reproduzo quase na íntegra um artigo que clarifica algumas coisas: 

«When National Public Radio (NPR) started offering a free podcast of its popular quiz show "Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!" it did so with lttle fanfare. That didn’t stop hundreds - and perhaps thousands - of people from downloading the satirical look at the week’s news on a Sunday afternoon back in February. By Monday morning, the show had joined Apple Computer’s list of the day’s five most popular podcasts.

It was good news for NPR, which has become a major player in the podcast world. Not so for the 350 NPR member stations that broadcast "Wait Wait." They’re worried that making the program available to iPods could mean a loss of listeners - and consequently the donations and ad dollars that keep the stations afloat. "Anytime customers can find your product in another place, it’s going to cause some concern," says John Decker of San Diego’s KPBS-FM. He says the podcast trend makes some public radio programmers "nervous."

(...) As more people watch programs on their computer or iPod, network affiliates worry about lower ratings - and lower revenue from commercials.

The vast majority of TV viewers, of course, still watch "60 Minutes" or "The West Wing" the old-fashioned way: on a television tuned to a local station. But that paradigm is fading out. Last week, ABC announced it would offer shows for free - although with commercials - for viewing directly over the Internet. ABC and NBC already offer shows like "Lost" and "The Office" as $1.99 commercial-free podcasts, viewable on computers or video-equipped iPods. NBC and CBS, meanwhile, will offer on-demand versions of their shows through the Comcast cable company. And tens of thousands of people routinely download illegal bootlegs of popular network shows.

(...) The situation is somewhat different in public radio. Member stations pay NPR to air its programming. So far, NPR is tiptoeing around the on-demand issue.

Between August 2005 and March 2006, listeners downloaded 18 million podcasts of the shows and individual stories it made available for free. That compares with a weekly listenership of 26 million.

But neither of NPR’s two signature daily news shows - "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" - are available as podcasts, nor are they aired on NPR’s channel on the Sirius satellite radio network. The shows "were specifically designed to be a vehicle for the local stations" to provide their own bits of programming, says NPR spokeswoman Andi Sporkin, and they’re staying that way.

Mr. Decker, the San Diego programmer, says those who worry about the impact of podcasts miss the big picture about access to public radio. "I do believe that we’re better off in the long run if we make ourselves as available as possible," he says. "We can’t stand in our own way."

fonte: «Podcasting shakes up local media», Christian Science Monitor, April 17, 2006 edition, by By Randy Dotinga

(obrigado E.)