Ads on the BBC and listening to water
?Good day to you on this merry Spring morning. I trust you’ve bought some daffodils from the supermarket to make yourself feel like it’s nearly Easter, as well as wondering how the hell it’s already nearly Easter.
This will forever be remembered as the week where I misjudged the temperature three days on the trot. Too hot on Monday, too cold on Tuesday and then too hot again on Wednesday. In fact Wednesday involved wearing a thermal undergarment on one of the sunniest days of the year so far. If only there was a way of knowing what the weather was going to be like when you get dressed in the morning. I don’t know - maybe an app or a half-hourly update on breakfast TV.
BBC Monetising podcasts panic
Oh my, if there’s one way to make a bunch of professional podcasters lose their shizzle, it’s the feeling that the BBC might be coming to steal their money. This week, the BBC announced that they were planning to start taking ads on some of their podcasts on external platforms. So if, for instance, you listen to Desert Island Discs on Spotify, it might have ads on it, whereas if it’s on BBC Sounds, it won’t.
For a long time now, BBC podcasts have carried ads via acast when listened to abroad, so that the non-license fee paying audience can be monetised. However, doing it in the UK is breaking? new ground.?
If you assume that there’s a finite amount of advertiser money going into the podcast space, then this looks very much like auntie is going to suddenly grab a whole load of commercial market share by dumping millions of downloads of inventory onto the shelf. That finite pot will suddenly be spread much more thinly, with revenue being diverted from lovely independent creators and production houses to the body that the listener is already funding through their licence fee.
Now, Fresh Air doesn’t make much of our money via the ad-funded route, so we don’t have skin in the game here. I have plenty of sympathy with our friends and partners in the commercial podcast space, and I can’t stand it when the BBC creates a new show (another football show) that seems to replicate what’s already on the market and adds nothing to the podcast mix.
However, one of the loudest complaints I saw this week was from the newly boosted podcast department of The Daily Mail. Now then, come on chaps. You can’t editorially object to the very concept of the licence fee, and rally your friends to make sure its budget gets a real-terms cut every year, but then deny the opportunity to monetise its high quality content in a commercial space. The licence fee is coming towards the end of its natural life, and this is what we’ve got to get used to. Want to hear BBC stuff without the ads? Go to BBC Sounds. Prefer the convenience of Spotify but still want to hear The Archers? Fine, but the flip side is there will be ads. There’s a skip button. Use it.
And there’s not a finite pot of marketing money in podcasting. Great content that marketing people love pulls budget through and gets podcasts on more media plans, as we’ve seen over the last ten years. We’re probably about to witness, for the first time, the huge commercial attractiveness of BBC audio content, which has the potential to pull everything else up with it. The private sector should be confident enough in the quality and commercial appeal of its own work to see the upside.?
I might be wrong, though. It might be a disaster for everybody. Either way, The Daily Mail can get in the sea.
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#whereskate?
I’m trying to run a company, you know. This week, Clara - Fresh Air’s Head of Gossip - has had her ear to the ground and been a fountain of knowledge regarding the location, health and romantic status of Catherine, Princess of Wales. And her husband. And that other one who looks like Kate but without a chin. And her husband.
This expertise quickly combines with Annie - Head of Chat, Snacks and Gambling - who lives ‘near Windsor’ (i.e. Maidenhead which doesn’t sound as posh) and therefore also has an inside track, and Martin - Head of 90s Band T-Shirts - who has spoken to some actual journalists who know stuff, to create a heady mix that sucks you into a vortex of Katetastic conjecture.
Consequently, at various points this week, Fresh Air has essentially ceased to operate. Once tea has been made and someone has asked Clara ‘so what do you reckon…?’ there’s been no space for any actual work for a good half an hour. Sorry if that email you sent us hasn’t been replied to yet but, you know, there are bigger issues at stake here. ?
What’s a Listener?
We like Dan Misener a lot. He’s probably the world’s leading podcast nerd. The sort of person who Richard - Director of pressing Send on the Email - has posters of on his bedroom wall. In his latest blog, he’s set out to explain what’s meant by a podcast listener.
What’s that you say? ‘Someone who listens to a podcast’’? Oh, you poor naive fool.?
Apple says a listener is “The number of unique devices that have played more than 0 seconds of an episode.”
Spotify says a listener is “The number of unique people on Spotify who played this episode 0 seconds or more.”
The IAB says it’s “Data that represents a single user who downloads content (for immediate or delayed consumption). Listeners are represented by the unique combination of IP address and User Agent as described in section 5, step 3. Listeners must be specified within a stated time frame (day, week, month, etc.).”
It’s about time we sorted this nonsense out, because it matters in reporting meaningful data back to clients. So that’s where Dan comes in. Spotify and Apple’s definitions are the most useful thus far because they’re measuring people who press play rather than machines that download a thing. Who cares whether a device has added a file? We care if a person has listened to our show, and at Fresh Air, we’re always looking for better ways to define, measure and understand the behaviour of the human, rather than just the machine. We’ll carry on with that good work. One day, when Richard and Dan succeed in uniting the podcast platforms with a single meaningful metric, it shall be declared a public holiday and they shall be married.?
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Eva Higginbotham spills the normal tea… ?
Do you like gossip? I LOVE gossip.
领英推荐
Not really celeb gossip mind you (who is Dua Lipa? I will never know. Yes, I’m only 32.)
But regular gossip about regular people? Tell me everything!
So I was delighted when, over a homemade prawn and pasta dinner this week, my good pal recently recommended ‘Normal Gossip.’ Host Kelsey McKinney digs into reader-submitted stories with comedian guests. The result is a hilarious exploration of the frankly ridiculous situations people you will never know get themselves into. I’ve only listened to a couple episodes so far but I am a firm fan - it’s like listening to your funniest friend tell you about their next-door neighbour's drama. It's a wonderful example of a podcast that takes a brilliant, repeatable format and just runs with it. A great pick me up which honestly will probably help you feel better about some of your own poor life choices. Win-win!
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Nik Gandhi loves a ramble...
Yes, yes. I’m sure you are already fully aware of The Adam Buxton Podcast, and if you aren’t then you might be living under a podcast rock, but you also have hundreds of hours of great interviews to look forward to.
A recent guest on the podcast was environmental activist George Monbiot, who I knew very little about aside from occasionally seeing him appear on Question Time or skim reading the Guardian articles.
Unlike most other episodes of this podcast, the interview takes place while the two walk around the outskirts of Bristol (and so is a literal ramble chat). Perhaps it’s due to this that George opens up on topics that he typically isn’t known to talk about as much, for example his relationship with his parents and why boarding school was a nightmare for him.
While they don’t directly touch on this, I’ve noticed this feels similar to TV shows which have begun to focus increasingly on men’s mental health. It seems like a common observation that men can only open up to other men while doing an activity together (if you wish to get to know me, I suggest going for a round of golf or a hike around the South Downs).
Of course George talks a lot about environmentalism on this podcast and why it matters so much to him, but it also makes you feel like you understand him more as a person by peeling back the layers.?
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What we've been listening to this week
Hot and cold water.
On this week’s ‘The Rest is Entertainment’ (my current favourite podcast), Marina Hyde mentioned that 93% of people can tell whether water is hot or cold, by LISTENING TO IT.
A bit of googling led me to this https://www.tiktok.com/@jadroppingscience/video/7127380682896198955?lang=en
Our ears are amazing, and don’t you forget it.
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What we've been doing?this week
Throbbing Gristle*
Basil - Fresh Air’s Head of Pressing Record - mentioned the name of this industrial music band, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. As soon as the term ‘throbbing gristle’ came out of Basil’s mouth, it was banned from the office by Michaela - Director of Content and Fierce Woman. This is the first phrase that has been banned both in its entirety AND in its constituent parts. Anyone who utters ‘throbbing’, ‘gristle’ or ‘throbbing gristle’ will be instantly turned to stone with a single Michaela stare. ?
*Michaela reviewed this email before publishing and was so offended by the term ‘throbbing gristle’ that she felt it needed a trigger warning. Therefore if you are offended by the term ‘throbbing gristle’ please do not read on.