Recently in Podcasting for Green Messaging Category
Watch a 6-minute trailer for the DVD "Planting the Vision" below.
> Watch the Natural Heroes Fruit Tree Tour Promo on the Natural Heroes site
Recent data shows podcasting is actually making a considerably large mainstream impact and that the business model is well underway towards profitability. Nope we are not completely there yet (think banner ads five years into public adoption of the internet) but these recent activities and new data suggest you might want to take a second look at this space.
The members of our trade group, comprised of RSS media host providers , big and growing content publishers (who are making money now, including my music discovery network IndieFeed, as well as shows that have significantly lower audience counts but with great loyal audiences), ad intermediaries, interactive agencies, and big brands including Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Real Networks, Discovery Networks, Turner Broadcasting, MTV, Arbitron, Neilsen, NPR, PBS, PRI, Comcast, and in total well over 200 members, believe we can help address the clear hurdles to translate to effective, wide-scale ad-supported monetization.
If you take IAB and ad banner development as an example, we believe best practice guidelines have developed far quicker than other technology adoptions in the past. They are the first public step in a coordinated effort to create cross-system apples-to-apples and low friction commerce between publishers and advertisers. We are moving forward to secure funding for primary research to help bear out the power and immediacy of subscribable and downloadable media at the niche level.
Second, The Arbitron Edison Research Internet and Multimedia Survey of 2008 just came out, showing a roughly 39% growth in audio and 45% growth in video podcast consumption from last year. Nearly 54 million Americans have consumed podcasts (more than one in 5), predominantly 25-54 age bracket, 53% male 47% female, consumption occurring predominantly at the desktop. I encourage you to speak to Tom Webster at Edison Media Research for more details, he can be reached at twebster at edisonresearch dawt calm.
TWITTER
We all love Twitter but podcasts dwarf Twitter usage, in substance,
unit production, and most importantly, reach. I'm not clear why this
comparison needs to be made. Sure they are two emerging user-generated
social technologies. Where Twitter is a growing, vibrant micro-blogging
medium, primarily link and text based, how it delivers direct revenue
generation for twitter publishers remains to be seen. It sure is a
great amplification device to an extremely small group of 2.0
influencers.
BLOGGERS
As for commercial viability, the stratification of
bloggers to commercially viable bloggers is likely the same as
podcasters to commercially viable podcasters. You've seen the graphs,
it looks a lot like an iceberg with the sea-level defining the
monetization line. Today the focus is on the group above the line.
Podcasting is not failing as a monetization model. Some publishers may never make money if they fail to deliver an opportunity to the advertiser, and vice versa. But many are and will fulfill this objective. It is not that RSS media enclosures are somehow a broken technology, it's tremendously powerful and monetizable. But systems will need to be adopted to accommodate scale and that is what our group is up to.
These recent indicators strongly suggest to our group that podcasting and episodic audio and video media is not only viable but a vibrant and exciting space for advertisers to reach loyal audiences drifting from traditional media.
Chris MacDonald
Chairman
Association for Downloadable Media
Wizzard Media
downloadablemedia.org
