What are podcast aggregators' prospects?

Housekeeping: This blog, begun last week, will now have its own homepage and has been named “Shash On Pod.”

In the first entry, I considered what the prospects are for podcasters or radio broadcasters planning to add video or virtual components to their offerings, as technology improvements make this more possible and less expensive to accomplish.

The more I thought about this development, the more it seemed that it goes hand in hand with what the business model for a podcast, satellite radio service or video entertainment service may be. Paid programs like Howard Stern on Sirius or Anthony Cumia’s independent video podcast, discussed last week, attract more resources to develop video content.

This week, let’s look at another aspect of podcasting – aggregation and networks. While even the most successful podcasts are often free, relying on a sponsorship model and including live reads of commercial copy in their episodes, the most popular ones, especially those in the comedy genre, only keep the most recent 25 or 50 episodes available for free and put older ones behind a paywall.

What are some of the most notable aggregations? One is Howl, a podcast “network” created by Midroll Media, a podcast advertising network owned by the E.W. Scripps media company. Howl’s foundation is a collection of “mini-series,” archives and recent episodes of Scott Aukerman’s Earwolf brand podcasts, its own “Wolfpop” podcasts, a library of comedy albums and extra premium content from Marc Maron, its most recently acquired member, and other popular podcasts. Howl charges $4.99 a month – a cost close to that of CBS All Access, the online offering of CBS television shows, to place it in a broader perspective of online media.

Is a paid podcast network viable? Last week, I critiqued Anthony Cumia’s offering on the basis that it was only one show for the subscription fee, so you really have to be a die-hard fan of him to want it. Howl offers numerous shows – all audio, of course – and that may save one the tedium of picking them out and managing all of the downloads manually through iTunes. One has to decide if that’s worth $4.99 a month – and whether throwing in about 80 comedy albums, some by performers with podcasts on the service, sweetens the deal enough, if easy access to all those podcasts hasn’t sold you on it.

The answer may be that a network like Howl has to start somewhere. If one could drill down into the numbers – comparing the proceeds based on the number of subscribers Howl has, with the overhead the service has to run its operations – it’s unlikely right now that the profits are large enough for it to be massively profitable.

Howl’s chances would be strengthened by two things – first, adding a lot more content. Howl has been called the “Netflix of podcasting,” but the size of its offering, compared to all available podcasts out there, is a very small fraction, if you compare it to the size of Netflix’s library as a portion of all available movies and video content. Secondly, growing the subscriber numbers exponentially. Addressing the first issue – content – could go far toward addressing the second issue.

Is the future of radio and podcasting in video?

Howard Stern recently signed a five-year deal to continue his radio career with Sirius XM. The deal, Stern has said, happened because the company will make significant investment into video capability for his show. Stern envisions a “virtual world” for his listeners and watchers.

Sirius XM’s overall programming offerings may also morph into video, company executives have hinted. It’s unclear what an expanded entertainment service from Sirius XM – for Stern or any other programs – may actually look like, and whether it will be fed through an app. There also has not been any indication so far about whether the cost of Sirius XM service may increase, and by how much.

 

Meanwhile, Anthony Cumia, who was fired from the “Opie & Anthony” show on Sirius XM in summer 2014, has since begun his own paid video podcast network, available online, as a smartphone app, and also on Roku video boxes, for $6.95 a month, or less for six-month commitments.

 

These changes raise a big question for radio or podcast format entertainers and hosts. Is the addition of video worthwhile both artistically and financially? In Cumia’s case, is making his show primarily video format enough of an incentive to get subscribers at his asking price? Especially when Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others, with wide ranges of programs (including a lot of talk shows, in Hulu’s case) and large content libraries, are at a monthly price point that is close to $7, or not much more than that.

 

Stern has a bigger fan base and higher profile than Cumia, but faces a similar issue if the cost of an expanded video and virtual content offering drives up the asking price of Sirius XM service. In the case of Stern and Sirius, this is mitigated by the presence of other content as part of the service, including content that presumably will be similarly upgraded. The other question with Sirius and Stern, however, is that at about $14.99 a month, its programming offering is still rooted in audio-only fare, such as music channels and talk and interview shows, and its distribution channel (specialized car radios and an app) is more limited than that of Netflix – if the result is that Sirius XM really does become a Netflix competitor in the process of the planned changes.

 

The paid model now being used by former broadcasters such as Stern and Cumia differs from what most popular podcasters use, a sponsorship-based model that is closer to traditional terrestrial radio. The most popular podcasts are split between those by former broadcasters such as Adam Carolla – or current broadcasters providing expanded versions of their shows on podcasts – like Jesse Thorn or Ira Glass – and comedians turned hosts, like Marc Maron and Chris Hardwick. The free, sponsor-supported podcast model seems even less likely to support video or virtual expansion – but the audio-only nature of its programming may be what makes its appeal so strong.