2CC Are A Potential Podcaster
February 28th, 2006 at 08:40am
It occured to me over the weekend that 2CC would be a very good podcaster. They have a lot of very interesting programming which would work quite well in a podcast format, and provide them with a new business opportunity.
My idea is that 2CC’s local programming could be released later in the day without the broadcast ads, but with a reduced number of podcast ads, the podcast ads for a 2CC podcast could be somewhat Canberra centric as the majority of 2CC’s podcast audience would probably be based in Canberra.
I should probably explain why I think their programming would make good podcast material. Firstly, it deals with Canberra and Australian news and contains a lot of interesting interviews, which would be of interest to many people, not just in Canberra. Some people may want to hear a certain interview again, or may be referred to an interview they missed. It could even add an extra dimension of listener interactivity to the programming, and make emails a bit more prominent. Many ex-Canberrans may be interested to hear what is happening in Canberra, in much the same way ex-Australians often listen to the 2UE webstream.
I ran a few quick calculations, based on 10 minutes of news and 12 minutes of commercials and found that Breakfast would run for 133 minutes and Drive for 114 minutes, which would, at 64kbps mono, work out at 63.84MB and 54.72MB respectively. These figures do not take into account the podcast ads, and they could probably get away with a half the bitrate and still have decent audio quality for speech.
The weekend programming would also be good in podcast form, and I think the 2CC podcasts would be quite popular.
I suppose they would probably need another staff member to handle the podcasts (I’d be happy to put my hand up!), but I still think they would make a profit from them if they had podcast ads.
Of course, another useful thing would be webstreaming, although I’m not sure if they would be allowed to stream network programming, and if they’re not able to, then I doubt that they would be inclined to run a part-time stream. None the less, I think the podcasts are a good idea.
On that note, Samuel’s Persiflage #3 has exceeded 100 downloads this month, the first episode to do so.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: TV/Radio/Media
9 Comments
1. petedixton | February 28th, 2006 at 10:13 am
I’d be concerned about their target audience though, it isn’t exactly the ‘podcasting type’. In general, people of that age group have difficulty grasping the concept of checking email and browsing the web in general, let alone podcasting. I’m sure there’s a percentage that are perfectly computer litterate, but it’s the minority. They stick with AM as it would confuse the older folks to switch to FM, so I’d assume media players would be a bit beyond them.
Pete
2. Samuel | February 28th, 2006 at 11:02 am
You’re probably right Pete, but I think podcasting would bring a new audience to them. Most podcasts are mainly spoken content, and the younger (and generally less talk radio oriented) demographic hasn’t baulked at it, so there is potential.
Interestingly, KFI 640, a US talk radio station have allowed one of their presenters, a certain Leo Laporte, to take his program, strip out the ads and distribute it as a podcast. This program is currently 2nd most popular podcast in its category on iTunes (rankings are updated every few minutes). Admittedly Leo’s show is tech based, but it is an IT help phone-in show, very talkback, and not incredibly exciting in my opinion, but rather popular.
Radio 2GB in Sydney have a constant stream of “highlights” podcasts, and Alan Jones’ interviews and opinions. 2GB target an older demographic, and have been a surprising success in that regard.
The one barrier I see here is 2CC’s current hosting, which appears (according to whois info) to be with Telstra, and being in Australia is probably not very cheap. If they were to move their hosting (or perhaps just have a podcast host) in the US, such as Bluehost who host this site, they would have the cheap and reliable hosting which would be able to handle the downloads with minimal chance of extra charges.
2GB and KFI are proof that this can work, 2CC might want to run a trial first, which is understandable, but I truly believe this can work, and can make a profit.
3. John B1_B5 | February 28th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I find most of the stuff I hear on 2CC pretty interesting ( except for a couple of segments, which I shan’t name here ) .
My biggest problem with 2CC ( and any commercial station for that matter ) is the adverts .
Not just the sheer volume of ads, but the repetition …. hearing the SAME ad over and over and over gets a bit ‘annoying’ at times . Some of the adverts are quite amusing , such as the “My friends call me Ralph ” advert ….. but even that one becomes annoying after hearing it 200 times or more .
A podcast with NO adverts would certainly be an interesting concept. If they put ads into the podcast I might as well just listen to the radio !
4. Samuel | February 28th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
I was thinking that they strip out the broadcast ads and maybe have one ad here and another there. Even at one podcast ad per broadcast ad break they would make a profit. They could probably even make a profit out of three or four ads per podcast.
It could also substantially boost 2CC’s news and information credentials if their interviews were available online.
5. John B1_B5 | February 28th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Ok, that would be better than ‘putting up’ with all the ads on the radio !
6. Chuck Berry | February 28th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Podcasting has done wonders for Radio National. It has at least ten shows in the top 100 Australian podcasts.
7. Chuck Berry | February 28th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
In iTunes.
8. Samuel | February 28th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Ah yes, of course, Radio National, how could I forget them when they seem to have a featured podcast every time I check the podcast listings in iTunes.
9. Chuck Berry | February 28th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Yes it has done wonders for them.