«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

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

«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

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.

«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

«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

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

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

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

«(...) 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

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

«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.»

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.»

«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

«(...) 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 -

«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

«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...)

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.

«(...) Podcasting has a long ways to go before it becomes a mainstream medium, but is poised to grow exponentially through the end of the current decade and will increasingly become an attractive outlet for advertisers, says a new report from eMarketer.

By 2008, podcast advertising should reach $150 million, approaching $300 million by 2010, according to the report.»

fonte: Mediaweek, Study: Podcasting to Grow Ads, Mike Shields, FEBRUARY 28, 2006)

Corey Deitz: «Some may think that Podcasting is only for hobbyists and DJ wannabes. But, it may surprise you to learn that businesses – some very large companies – are either exploring or already Podcasting like IBM, RealNetworks, Oracle, Disney, and General Motors. »

E agora para o Edgard: «The 7 Deadly Sins of Commercial Podcasting»:

1. Podcasting Without a Plan

2. Podcasting Without Providing Unique Value

3. Podcasting Like a Broadcaster

4. Underestimating the Commitment

5. Believing That Talent and Expertise Don’t Matter

6. Being Seduced by the Age of Amateurism

7. Believing That the Playing Field Is Level

Plus: The Three Unpardonable Sins

8. Relying Primarily on RSS to Build an Audience

9. Believing That Format Doesn’t Matter

10. Overestimating Podcasting / Underestimating Podcasting

YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE RIGHT NOW BY CLICKING HERE. For the low, low price of $6.95 you’ll get at least four new, weekly, full-length episodes (and possibly more, unless Karl’s innate denseness leaves Ricky and Steve permanently speechless). Subscribe now and we’ll start you off with the FREE PREVIEW.»

«iTunes doesn't currently support the purchasing of podcasts through its own store, but does allow the purchase of audio spoken content through its link with Audible, which can be accessed through the Music Store.

An Audible subscription to the show will cost $7 a month in the US and £4.50 a month in the UK. For the money, you'll get four half hour shows.»

Inspirada certamente no esforço da sua congénere norte-americana (mas congénere com muitas aspas, como é óbvio), a BBC deixou a fase de testes de podcasting (beta...) e passou à segunda fase da experiência:

"A total of 29 new programmes will be added to the trial, including Radio 4's Woman's Hour and hourly news summaries. All of the programmes will be available to download until June. The BBC's podcast trial started in May last year with around 20 shows.  (...) Last month it was revealed that almost two million BBC radio podcasts were downloaded during December, with the corporation's breakfast programmes the most popular with listeners."

Muito mais agora que o único programa que fazia sombra acabou: Ricky Gervais, «o podcast mais ouvido do mundo acaba amanhã» (no Público de ontem).

"The truth is that podcasting is a double-edged sword. While it allows listeners to hear a show or a segment they might have missed on your station, it also offers an alternative to listening to your station. The trick will be to use podcasting to brand your station, build loyalty and make a buck, while retaining listenership.

Among advertisers, the talk about podcasting is getting louder, even though it is not a line item in media plans. And many agencies see media companies as the key beneficiaries.

In the end, the ability for stations and their parent companies to develop new revenue streams using the medium will determine whether it will be seen as friend or foe."

"Six In '06: Radio's Mega-Trends", Billboard Radio Monitor
Jan. 13, 2006
By Tony Sanders, Bram Teitelman, Phyllis Stark, Paul Heine and Ken Tucker

O facto de o TiVo (potente máquina de gravação video digital, que - por aquilo que sei - apenas existe nos EUA) passar a receber e a reproduzir podcasts é um sinal dos novos tempos; da capacidade das novas tecnologias convergirem; do podcast se afirmar.

"The functionality uses  RSS feeds to bring the audio shows to the listeners. The shows are not actually downloaded to the TiVo boxes but are in effect streamed. There's no word on what additional ads might be included as part of the service but whatever spots might be within the podcast will be left intact"

As primeiras reacções não são muito animadoras: "initial reactions aren't too promising. Perhaps the service is still in alpha beta, but folks are finding that it takes a good four or five minutes to add an RSS feed to the TiVo via a remote. Worse yet: after all that hard work the only reward you get is to have the feed disappear from your Favorites after using the regular TiVo menu. That's pretty sad since TiVo remembers every pixel of a television show. You'd think it could remember a few characters for a podcast feed."

"Quase dois milhões de podcasts da BBC foram descarregados durante Dezembro. Os programas da manhã mostram-se os mais populares, com Chris Moyles da Radio 1 no topo (o seu programa foi descarregado 446,809 vezes). O Today da Radio 4 vem no segundo lugar. Mark Kermode, autor do programa de cinema da Five Live e Chris Evans' Best Bits, da Radio 2, também estão no top 10".

Excerto: "The Best of Moyles mp3 - a 20-minute broadcast featuring speech highlights from the week - was boosted by daily podcasts when the show was in New York.

Moyles said: "I'm very pleased we're number one and that people are making an effort to listen to the show even if they can't be bothered to get up early to hear us."

BBC Radio 4 has a strong presence in the chart, with the Today programme's daily 0810GMT interview receiving 413,492 downloads in the month, while From Our Own Correspondent and In Our Time both performed well.

Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio & Music Interactive, said: "It's fantastic to see how the demand for radio downloads has grown since we first offered them in 2004.

"These figures underline the enduring relevance of radio in the digital world."

Twenty programmes were made available in BBC Radio's download and podcast trial last May. At the end of 2005 it was announced that the trial would be extended into this year and would include more programmes.»

"The New Radio Revolution", MARCH 3, 2005, By Heather Green, Tom Lowry, and Catherine Yang (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005033_0336_tc024.htm)

Sobre o podcasting: "With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy creating audio programming for thousands of others. They’re bypassing an entire industry. The digital revolution took its time getting to radio. Now it’s exploding -- and the big bang goes far beyond podcasting. As radio shows are turned into digital bits, they’re being delivered many different ways, from Web to satellite to cell phones. Listeners no longer have to tune in at a certain time, and within range of a signal, to catch a show or a game. As the business goes digital, the barriers to entry -- including precious airwaves -- count for less and less".

"Whatever the reason, there’s no denying a stark reality: Listeners, increasingly bored by the homogeneous programming and ever-more-intrusive advertising on commercial airwaves, are simply tuning out and finding alternatives. Says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media: "Radio pissed on their own product and then cluttered it up."

... feita por John C. Dvorak, epsecialista em Novas Tecnologias, na Exame Informática (Janeiro 2006), no artigo "A Hora do Podcast":

"Quem tem menos de 20 anos é praticamente obrigado a ter um blogue ou fazer parte do blogue de alguém. O fenómeno do podcast tende a ser algo parecido. Nos EUA, a única coisa que vai restar para a rádio tradicional vão ser notícias e informações de trânsito. Suspeito que a mesma coisa acontecerá rapidamente no mundo inteiro".

Cheguei a este texto via podcastpt.