Tag Archives: Podcasting

Everything you ever wanted to know about the flu

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Our little podcast experiment is rolling right along. In show #6, Henry talks about the flu. Who should get flu shots? Can they make me sick? Can I still get the flu, even if I get the shot? Is there a pill I can take for the flu? Are there different kinds of flu? Henry doesn’t tackle Avian Flu in this show because he thinks we are at much higher risk from the regular flu.

The good doctor is in Florida for a couple of weeks but we have three shows in the can. Next week the topic is Smoking; the week after, How to Start an Excercise Program.

Henry is having a lot of fun with this but wonders why more people aren’t downloading and listening to the show. I explain that we’re still kind of on the front end of the podcasting thing. According to a study by research firm Ipsos Insight, about 28 percent of web users know what a podcast is, but only about 2 percent of that group has actually listened to one. But that number is growing. iTunes lists more than 15,000 free podcasts.

Okay, now were talking more about podcasting than the flu but the segue was nearly perfect, so… I might have mentioned that four of my coworkers recently got iPods. These are all long-time radio people and I’m eager to hear their (user) experiences with podcasting. To what kinds of programs will they subscribe? When and where will they listen? What ideas –if any– will these new listening experiences spark?

Living Healthy Podcast: Shows 6 and 7

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We now have seven Living Healthy Podcasts online or in the can. We’ve been recording two shows at a time to get a bit ahead. Henry’s idea, and a good one. The most recent shows (Influenza and Smoking) are the best to date (IMO). I’m hearing some things for the first time and it’s all useful stuff you can put into practice (or not). And some of it’s just interesting. For example, people who succeed in quitting smoking attempted it seven times. The new shows go up on December 3 and 10.

Video iPods peg the cool meter

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video iPodA video is part of most of our presentations to universities when bidding on the athletic multimedia rights. I’ve never been at one of the presentations but I’ve seen the videos. Lots of snap, crackle and pop. In a recent presentation, our guys loaded up some video iPods (the sexy black ones) with the pitch video and threw in some highlights (TV and radio); a bunch of still images and anything else they could get their hands on. Very high cool factor. The university folks can’t keep such goodies but they can auction them off for a charitable cause or something. The point is, something magical happens when people get these things in their hands. The ear buds go in and they are in…the…zone.

Speaking of iPods… I was in a meeting with some department heads recently where blogging and podcasting came up as marketing tools. I opined that you really need to have and use an iPod to understand the podcasting phenomenon. The head of the division was running the meeting and told each of the department heads to purchase an iPod and learn how to use it. Smart move.

Who will own the podcasting rights?

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From an article by Dan Migala in the Sports Business Journal (subscription required):

“The NHL’s Blackhawks have launched Hawk-Cast, which is the first podcast created by an NHL team. A new edition of Hawk- Cast, which is a 10- or 15-minute show, is available two to three times a week. The show is hosted and produced by Blackhawks Web producer Adam Kempenaar using only a computer with audio recording capability and Internet access. The HawkCast features updates from practices and interviews with players, coaches and team management. Postgame news conferences and player interviews are also available as podcasts at www.chicagoblackhawks.com.”

As an employee of a company that pays millions of dollars every year for the media rights to some of the top college teams in the country, this next little item caught my attention:

“Another plus for the Blackhawks is that, because the content is original and produced in-house, there are no conflicts with radio rights holders. The team is free to sell advertising and sponsorships for each podcast or program segment. Kempenaar said the club has not sold advertising yet, but plans to do so.”

I remember the first time we saw a reference to streaming rights in a college bid spec. You can bet we’ll be seeing references to podcasting rights in future rights deals.

Living Healthy Podcast #2

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Just uploaded the second Living Healthy podcast and we record #3 (What over-the-counter pills will make you healthy?) this Thursday. My doc is doing this because he sees it as the perfect vehicle to help people (his patients and others). I’m doing it because it’s fun. And it’s so easy and inexpensive to do, we just did it. We don’ need no stinking sponsors! But if you did want to make this pay, it might work like this:

Let’s say a year from now, there are 1,000 people downloading the show every week. With patients, friends, colleagues… I don’t think that would be an impossible number. Would a local hospital or medical group be willing to pay $100 per show (nice mention at beginning and end and maybe a drop-in somewhere in the middle)? Maybe.

Now, can you think of, say, nine more show ideas out there? I can. (SFX: calculator) Hello! We’re at $50,000 annually. The only thing missing are the 30’s and 60’s.

Update: Looks like I might have been off by a factor of four. Maybe. Good article by Heather Green at BusinessWeek online:

KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica, cut a deal with Southern California Lexus Dealers for a sponsorship this summer, when the station was getting 20,000 downloads a week. Since then the number spiked to 100,000. When the Lexus deal ends, KCRW plans to charge $25 per thousand listeners.

Why the premium for some podcasts? They help advertisers reach specific groups, even as media fragments. That’s one reason Sequoia Capital’s Mark Kvamme thinks podcasting could siphon $1 billion to $2 billion away from the $30 billion radio advertising market in three to five years.