Audible's Channels: Are They Being Heard?

Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook service, debuted a beta version of “Channels,” a foray into podcast-style programming, in April. The service is not yet widely available, but the effort raises a few questions about its place in the audio programming competition.

Channels  is a de facto competitor for both free podcasts and subscription podcast apps and networks like Howl and Gimlet, as well as, in some respects, to satellite radio.

The first question is whether Channels’ few original shows are enough of an attraction by themselves, especially when so many popular podcasts are free.

Second, Channels has what one could call “syndicated” content from other media outlets, including several WNYC public radio-generated podcasts, highlights of the Risk storytelling podcast, and the Charlie Rose show (in audio form). These, of course, aren’t exclusive, and the only value of including them on Channels is the assumption that a Channels user lives only within the Channels firewall and doesn’t access any other audio content in any way, even free content.  Also, if Channels does grow exponentially in popularity, producers of this outside content could start demanding licensing income, or higher licensing fees – just as that happened with Netflix.

Third, numerous channels on the service are generic with titles like “60 Minutes of Fear,” “The Appetizer for Food Lovers,” “Entrepreneur Accelerator” and “Learn Something Amazing.” Without more detail on what these are, how much content they have and how frequently they add new content, it’s unclear how much of a draw these are, or what their quality is.

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but once they become evident, which is likely to take some time – possibly even years, not months – those answers will determine just how successful Audible Channels could be. The “market cap,” if the initiative works, could be far higher than just the audiobooks service.

Podcast of the week

I left this feature hanging, but promise to be more diligent to add it to each post going forward. The first episode of Chris Gethard's "Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People" was an intriguing listen. It was exciting and moving to hear Gethard urge his caller to get out of a rut and go out and seize life.