Broadcasters test podcasting although no business case has yet emerged

Because they think it will become more important in the on-demand listening and viewing world, broadcasters have begun to experiment with podcasting even though there is no established business case yet for the delivery of non-real-time audio feeds. "I think broadly speaking as television and radio become more and more ubiquitous, we want to be able to deliver that to our audience. It’s not for everyone, but for people who are interested in accessing our content on these different platforms, we want to be there for them," says Maria Hale, VP of content business development at CHUM Ltd. CHUM was one of the first Canadian broadcasters to try podcasting with the launch of a daily podcast of its 104.5 CHUM FM Toronto radio station’s Roger, Rick and Marilyn Show on May 2. A downloadable version of the show is available each morning from 5 a.m. that includes the best clips from the previous day’s show, artist interviews and live performances. Since then, CHUM has added two other 104.5 shows and Ottawa AM sports radio morning show Three Guys on the Radio to its podcasting lineup. "At this point the return for us is a little cloudy. There is no real business model attached to it, other than extending your brand. And you can’t really measure the return on that," adds Hale. "From our perspective it’s how podcast cost-effectively so that you’re not spending a lot of time for a very niche audience." In Hale’s eyes, podcasting is most likely to develop along the lines of a free-ad supported model, at least initially. Although CHUM has yet to generate any revenue from its podcasting, she says that there is a growing interest in it from the advertising community. "We are including in various pitches that go out to clients who want that more intimate relationship with audiences, and obviously it’s another vehicle for them, and you can include different links to it," she notes. "There is growing interest . It is a space that is evolving very quickly." Canada’s public broadcaster has also jumped on the podcasting bandwagon, with a pilot project running until December. Like Hale, Krista Harris, executive director of production and resources for CBC Radio, says there is no business case, but it’s an important technology to be experimenting with. "I really think it’s important to have on-demand listening – and not just podcasting – that let’s people listen or watch when they want to and on what device they want to, whether that be an iPod, an MP3 player, their computer at home, or cell phone," Harris says. Both Harris and Hale don’t think that a subscription-based model will develop for podcasting. But Harris sees the CBC moving more toward sponsorship rather than paid advertising, since its radio network is commercial-free. Car company Nissan, for example, sponsors podcasting by National Public Radio in the United States. "There is a broadband cost to podcasting. Every time we deliver to an end user, we’re using the pipes and we’re paying a fee," she notes. "So we have to figure out how to make those costs as small as possible, and how to pay for the costs that are remaining." She adds, "There was some talk initially that perhaps people would subscribe to this for a fee. But I think if you look around at other public broadcasters and broadcasters, no one is charging a subscription fee, so I don’t think that’s a business model that would work for podcasting." Another option, she states, is advertising within the podcasts – or promo commercials – but she questions its viability as well. "I don’t think people would listen to the promos, because the one thing about on-demand listening is that you can fast forward," she adds. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is currently podcasting four shows: its weekly science show Quirks & Quarks, daily highlights of its Toronto Metro morning show, some programming from its Radio Three network, and a column called Nerd by Tod Maffin that airs on its morning and afternoon radio shows. "We want to see what demand is like, and what types of programs would be of most interest," says Harris of the podcasting pilot project, which she anticipates expanding to other shows in January. Hale says CHUM went with its most popular shows for its podcasts. "You take your biggest hits and you try to make them available in as many different ways as you can, and keep the audience happy. So it’s really based on demand," she states. But there is little podcasting of music at this point, because another big issue is copyright, Harris says. She adds the CBC is working with the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), and the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) to work out an agreement, even if only on an experimental basis, so that music can be included in some podcasts. "If you listen to our Quirks & Quarks podcast, you will see that we chop it up into pieces because essentially we have to take out all of the music in there before we can podcast," she comments. Harris says that there is on average 30,000 downloads a week of the Radio Three podcast, and 25,000 a week of the Quirks & Quarks show. Hale notes that CHUM’s Toronto station shows get an average of about 5,000 downloads a week. The next step for CHUM, according to Hale, could be moving the technology into the television arena. "We’re looking at it on the TV broadcast space. We’re putting together our content plan and what programs might lend themselves to this. Star! Daily is an entertainment show that we do on the conventional side which we think might be of interest to our audiences," she says. "We’re really looking to get some learnings from our radio brothers and sisters and then apply those learnings to what we do on the TV broadcast side...For us, it’s also a little bit about waiting for the technology to catch up with video on iPods and for video devices to be more broadly distributed." Hale adds that CHUM will be "launching a more intensive broadband platform" in the first quarter of 2006 that should allow the broadcaster to do more. "As we go down the road and we are able to figure out podcasting’s role in our broadcasting mix, we may or may not increase our profile there," she says. "It’s more of a trial now for our content. is being consumed broadly by a significant amount of people. I think it’s figuring out what is CHUM’s role and what does our audience want from us." Other broadcasters have also started podcasting: CTV Inc.’s TSN has been podcasting since October 1, incorporating everything from the daily sports magazine series Off the Record to Bob MacKenzie’s editorial twice a week. "TSN podcasts are always in the top 10 at iTunes Canada," says CTV VP of programming communications Mike Cosentino. CTV, however, didn’t want to discuss podcasting any further in an interview. CanWest Global Communications hadn’t returned phone calls at press time about whether or not it had plans for podcasting. The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) began podcasting its PrimeTime Politics, Revue Politique and the House of Commons Question Period on September 28. "We hope that by providing Question Period through podcasts, we can increase the accessibility of Canada’s Parliament to a new generation of Canadians who choose to get their music, entertainment and information in this new, portable format," said CPAC president and general manager Colette Watson at the time of the announcement.

Broadcasters test podcasting although no business case has yet emerged

News | 11/07/2005 5:00 am EST

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