RAudio - 3rd Edition
RTE - The Musical, Podcasting in a Strange Place and Pod vs Vid
Welcome to the 3rd official edition of the RAudio Newsletter
Just to recap, each week I’ll be taking a look at big stories in radio, podcasting and audio.
Any feedback, questions or potential topics are welcome – you can get me on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamthompsonconsulting/ or on Twitter @Maxliam
I did promise I’d talk a bit more about podcasts this week, but I do also want to update on the amazing Irish story that is the RTE payments scandal.
RTE – The Musical
Ireland’s State Broadcaster RTE continues to struggle through a series of public beatings, with Oireachtas committees raking through the details of RTE’s accounts in the wake of a presenter payment scandal.
Last week, saw details of a catastrophic expedition into musical theatre, in which they attempted to turn the Christmas edition of long running chat show “The Late Late Show” into a musical. Does that sound insane? Maybe a little.
The annual Toy Show edition of the Late Late show features the children of Ireland, or at least a photogenic and performative group of them demonstrating the latest toys for Christmas… It’s a national tradition, and gets huge audience numbers… It turns out however a full length musical version of it was a bad idea…
How bad an idea? Well, a 27 night run managed to lose RTE €2.2 Million, that’s a loss of over €80,000 per show and they only sold 11,000 tickets in total.
I haven’t seen the show, well, it turns out hardly anyone has seen the show, but I’m imagining Celine Dion style ballads like “Stop, I think that’s my present” and of course the rock and roll classic “Leave that toy alone, it’s your sisters”.
I think the lesson here might be, when your board say find new areas of business, try new things, we’ve got to diversify and expand our brand, a wise manager says, let’s try it on a small scale first.
Back to Podcasting…
One of the things I do, almost every day is write and edit an episode of The Smart 7 podcast alongside Jamie East. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a 7 minute daily podcast, with the 7 biggest stories, published at 7am, 7 days a week that promises to get you up to speed in 7 minutes…
This is where you can find it - https://podfollow.com/thesmart7
Yes, I’m aware that is a lot of 7s, but you need to make your concept stick in people’s heads.
We’ve published over 1000 episodes of The Smart 7, since April 2020, we also publish an Irish edition daily and have dipped our toes in the water of Germany and Showbiz, with the Heat 7. Our production company, the oddly named Daft Doris has had over 15 million downloads to date.
So, I have a pretty good understanding of the podcast market, the mechanics, the audiences and the challenges…
And I have to say, podcasting is in a strange place at the moment.
Saying goodbye to Dumb Money
I was speaking to someone on Friday who said that the “dumb money” has left podcasting, and Nick Hilton has written extensively on podcasting, celebrity shows and the way the medium is moving.
Certainly, from an advertising and revenue point of view, it feels like we’re in the middle of a tough period, there are less campaigns, fewer brands and with less new shows launching, maybe some of the heat has left the medium.
The big budget, tech driven, investment in content certainly seems to have dried up, with only Audible still spending consistently and there’s a real hesitancy in any new projects.
Celebrity podcasts continue to roll off the production line, with Katie “Jordan” Price, the latest to join the world of audio, however, even at her launch event, she admitted she’s never listened to a podcast, so it might not be a passion project.
The confounding thing about all of this, is that the audience for podcasting continues to grow with 42% of people listening in the last month in the US and 31% in the UK.
Podcasting is a unique form of media, research shows that people come to podcasting to educate and entertain themselves, the headphone driven listening experience helps to form a one to one connection with your listener that is unlike any other format.
The critical piece that’s missing is the flow of revenue, but with companies like Acast innovating in how they sell advertising and opening up things like their Self Serve platform, it may be that a wider range of brands start to invest in podcasting.
I think there’s much more potential for radio stations and broadcasters to apply their skills here too and if I were still running a radio station, I’d be looking in a very serious way at premium branded content for clients.
With any new or new-ish medium, there are going to be different phases of growth, I’m hopeful that as audiences continue to discover podcasting, more brands will begin to invest and the next version of the medium will surprise and delight.
Podcast and Video
One area on which I definitely have old fashioned views, however, is video.
Maybe it’s because I have audio running through my veins, but I just don’t see how podcasts and video fit together naturally. Yes, video can be a powerful promotional tool for your podcast and video drives attention on social media. But do audiences want to watch a 40 minute conversation in a poorly lit room dominated by ugly microphone stands?
I don’t think so. Much like the way radio station’s video streams are best served in small doses, I think video for podcasts should be an additional tool and not an integrated part of the product.
Podcast listeners love audio, they listen on headphones, making full length video versions just doesn’t make sense to me.
Can I submit as evidence this piece that went viral last week – it’s Harrison Ford on the Conan podcast – “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” ….
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676626619530657793
So, here’s the challenge… Watch the clip, twice. But, first time watch it with your eyes closed. Then watch the video and tell me which one is more entertaining?
I’m going to say audio only. But let me know if you think I’m wrong in the comments…
That’s plenty for now, although I may not be able to resist coming back for the testimony of RTE’s spurned star and his superagent, which is due to stream live on Tuesday.
It may be the first time an Oireachtas Committee hearing has been screened live in Ireland’s pubs!