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
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