Archive for the 'Podcasting Networks' Category

Todd Cochrane is the CEO of Raw Voice, a longtime podcaster at Geek News Central and helps connect podcasters with advertisers via his Blubrry podcast network.

He’s also known for having strong opinions, on topics ranging from the PodShow/Mevio name change to the quality of podcasters’ RSS feeds.

I asked Todd about his perspective on user-generated content and the state of podcasting:

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: PodShow changed its name to Mevio recently, in part to distance itself from “podcasting” and user-generated media. Does user-generated media, in your estimation, mean amateur or poorly-produced media?

Todd Cochrane: I think many people have lost focus on the fact that we live in a period of time when anyone can create content. The barrier to entry is nearly non-existent. With the barrier to entry being low, the quality of the content is going to vary.

The beauty of the space remains that anyone can create content. But when it comes to judging content this is a very subjective subject. There are millions of people in the United States alone, and what I may consider to be poorly-produced content may in fact be content that my neighbor connects with.

Podcast content is not about the production quality, it’s about message and the ability to connect with others that have a similar interest.

For example - When we started my mom’s show, the goal was to reach a single person. She does not care if the show reaches thousands. She wants to reach people that can take what is said and use to their benefit. The content is produced by me.

While it may not be the highly-produced content (Mevio CEO) Ron Bloom is referring to, the important thing is that she is connecting with a lot of people worldwide that she would not otherwise. Thus, the payoff has been reaching and affecting people worldwide.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Does the term “podcast” carry a stigma? If so, is there something that podcasters should be doing to correct this?

Todd Cochrane: I do not hear this from media buyers or people that consume the content.

Those creating podcast in the mainstream media and Mevio would like people to think the user generated content carries a stigma. The failure of a company to meet their financial numbers is not because of the content.

I think the comments by Mevio leadership is part of a bigger strategy…. What I think is being attempted by the folks at Mevio is to establish a “podcast class system.”

It appears on the surface that they are in trouble as a company, and they need to make the appearance that somehow the produced content on their site, much of which they have no rights to, is superior to all others in order to demand higher advertising rates. Ron (Bloom) took the first step in establishing a class system, by slamming user-generated content, and spitting on those that allowed them to get two big rounds of funding.

I cannot even imagine what we [Blubrry and Raw Voice] would have been able to accomplish with that kind of money. I can guarantee we would not be spitting on those that have supported us and [would] have a lot more to show for it.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: You wrote recently on your blog about your frustration with incomplete shows - podcasts that are missing important information, descriptions, artwork, categorization, etc. Where do these incomplete shows come from?

Todd Cochrane: Many are being auto-added by new people in the podcast space who are just desperately trying to get exposure, but do not take the time to complete their profiles. Part of it is because many simply do not know the benefits of good show listings and rich meta data.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Do these half-baked podcasts perpetuate the (mis)perception that podcasts are amateurish or poorly produced?

Todd Cochrane: I think what happens is, people have great intentions, but then figure out creating content over a long period is hard work. This is why more than 50% of shows never make it past show #7.

It may add to the “amateurish” perception, but from a business model, it impacts nothing. Generally, those new shows have not yet decided to monetize their content.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: In another post on the Blubrry blog, you set a deadline and threatened to get rid of those shows with incomplete feed information. What has happened with that?

Todd Cochrane: So far, as house cleaning goes, we suspended about 400 shows.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What do you see happening with podcasting, both on your podcast network and with podcasting in general?

Todd Cochrane: This does not directly answer your question, but I asked a podcaster recently, that was making a very significant amount of money with his show, if we could use his show as a case study. The podcaster declined — because he was making full-time wages on a part-time basis. He did not want his employer to find out he was making more money with his podcast then he was on his 9-5. The podcaster is loving life as he can double dip and have the best of both worlds.

On the other hand, we have shows to which we pay very small checks. They are happy because they understand that their “micro audience,” based on their content, is not in a position to make big money.

This is why podcasters need to pick the ad[vertising] deal they are in carefully. For instance, we have a show with 3000 listeners, which is out-performing a show with 50,000 listeners, simply because the show producer of the 3k show has amazing engagement with his audience. That show with 3000 listeners is making more than $8k a month on one of our media buys.

The subject of money is a tough one for sure.

So far as what is fair, my only hope is that companies will be transparent.

For the record:

• CPM-based buys that I have dealt with range in the $20.00 to $45.00 level.
• Flat sponsorships for specific buys have had CPM comparables much higher than the $45.00 level.
• Flat sponsorships can pay very well.
• We also have a variety of CPA buys.
• To date the most we have paid a single podcaster on a “monthly” basis on a CPM buy is well over $10k monthly.
• The most we have paid a podcaster on a CPA buy has been between $6500 - $8300 on a monthly basis, for over a year.

But I have to caution your readers, the focus should not be on the big payment numbers. The focus should be on the thousands of content creators. They have the simple ability to make something, and get what they have to say out there. If they so choose to monetize, we are here to help them with no strings attached, along with providing the audience-building tools we are known for on our communities.

That philosophy, focusing first on the content, not on the money-making, as applied to our business model: we treat each and every content creator exactly the same. But we temper that with some realities. Some shows have the ability to generate significant revenue, other shows may only be capable of generating enough revenue to pay for hosting and or take the wife out to dinner.

The Sydney Morning Herald took a look at the Cult of Podcast Celebrity and profiled pioneering podcaster Cameron Reilly:

One Australian who is using podcasting to give himself - and his fellow podcasters - a voice is Cameron Reilly, who founded the Podcast Network - a stable of podcasts ranging from religion to martial arts.

“I made a decision that I was going to try and use the internet as a platform to try and make the world a better place,” Reilly says. “The very basis of human culture is communication and that’s all the internet is about - sharing information.”

His flagship podcast, Gday World, began in November 2004 and now has about 50,000 listeners.

“It started off as a technology news show but that got boring and these days I usually talk about religion, politics and social justice. Honestly, when I started I thought I’d get about half-a-dozen listeners who would hear me give the same rant as I do over a bottle of wine with dinner.”

The article profiles several other podcasters, too, including Leo Laporte & Beti Nic.

PodShow has officially announced that it has changed its name to Mevio. Along with this announcement, the company announced updates to its site.

The name change has been greeted with skepticism by many podcasters, and there’s already a “Mevio” entry in the Urban Dictionary.:

The act of renaming a company / business, thinking that the new name will make up for fact the business model was either flawed or poorly executed.

That Web 2.0 company just laid-off 25% of their staff and now they are going to Mevio their name in hopes of bringing in new investors.

According to Mevio, though, there’s more to the name change than just rebranding. They say that the name change “is the culmination of PodShow’s transition to a complete broadband entertainment network for the social Web.”

Mevio Distancing Itself From Indie Podcasters

One of the reasons for the name change is that the company is trying to distance itself from amateur content and the term “podcasting.” The company is now focusing on distributing professionally produced shows.

“We have never believed in user-generated content as a business, or even as a sustainable entertainment offering,” said Ron Bloom, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, MEVIO.

“Our combination of premier, high quality content with a growing and return audience gives brand advertisers the kind of online viewer engagement that they are hard-pressed to find anywhere else on the Web,” said Adam Curry, co-founder and President of MEVIO. (more…)

PodShow, the heavily-hyped podcasting startup from podfather Adam Curry, is dead; it’s changing its name to Mevio.

NewTeeVee attributes the name change to a so-called “curse of the ‘Pod”" - the idea that any company with “pod” in the name is cursed. They note that PodZinger has changed its name to EveryZing & PodBridge has changed its name to VoloMedia.

When podcasting is growing 40% year to year, though, with some surveys pegging podcasting’s growth as high as 87% year to year, it’s a mistake to pin the troubles of PodTech and PodShow on their “pod” names.

PodShow has raised and spent close to $24 million over the last couple of years, but its business case appears to be stalled with its stars pimping GoDaddy codes. That’s a problem they aren’t going to fix with a name change.

Mevio expects to be profitable by the end of the year - but I’ll be surprised if we don’t see some very high-profile defections from the “Mevio” camp before then.

EQAL, the faux reality show startup of LonelyGirl15 creators Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, has raised $5 million in capital to help it produce new shows and international versions of its show:

Per Becket & Goodfried:

We’ve spent the last year and a half working hard at producing lonelygirl15, launching KateModern, and figuring out a business model that works in this emerging medium. None of it would have been possible without the help of our incredible team and our amazing community of hundreds of thousands of passionate viewers. Of course, you all know the actors on each show, but you may not know James, Amanda, Kelly, Casey, Luke, Kevin, Yusuf, Marcello, and the entire lonelygirl15 and KateModern production teams without whom none of this would be possible. We are incredibly fortunate to be working with such an all star group of individuals.

It’s an exciting time for online entertainment. There are a slew of independent producers, digital studios, and social media companies sprouting up, not to mention the fact that traditional media isn’t exactly ignoring this whole “internets” thing. We’ve always wanted to stay independent and produce interactive shows that we could put our hearts and souls into, and sometime last fall we realized that raising money would give us the ability to remain independent and produce amazing shows on our terms.

After six months of fast food and airplane delays, we found a VC that shared our vision to build a company that would produce truly interactive shows. Many of the exciting innovations we’ve all talked about will finally come to fruition now that we have the funding to act on our shared vision. Needless to say, we’re very excited to get started.

No investors would have put a cent in this company without the passionate and amazing community that has formed around LG15. A sea change is under way, and you are all at the very beginning. We are so excited to take this ride with you and see where it will lead.

Who’d have thought a video series co-starring a purple monkey puppet would come so far?

Trends are favorable for new media content producers: people are moving their attention from television to Internet media; the audience for new media is exploding; and there’s a flood of advertising money ready to wash into new media.

Podcasting startup PodShow has laid off one-third of its staff, according to a report Valleywag:

PodShow, the San Francisco-based online-video network best known for launching the career of CNET’s Natali Del Conte, is laying off about 20 employees, or as much as 30 percent of its staff.

“There are no secrets, only information you don’t yet have,” is the slogan for former MTV VJ Adam Curry’s podcast. Curry, a PodShow cofounder, didn’t show up to deliver information about the firings; we’re told he left that to middle managers.

This looks like the end of the podcasting hype.

None of the heavily hyped podcasting startups have delivered on their promise, despite a one-year jump on the mainstream competition and inexorable trends driving people to podcasts and other Internet media.

Expect more podcast hype backlash in the next year, while forward-thinking organizations and early-adopters push podcasting technology to mainstream adoption.

More: Our take on the podcasting hype cycle.

Podcasting network Wizzard Media has announced that it is is working with European lottery site PlayUKinternet.com on what they are calling the first international geo-targeted audio podcast advertising campaign.The three month campaign is aimed at audiences around the globe in Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Italy, encompassing over half a million ad impressions delivered across a select group of audio podcasts on the network.

“We believe their state-of-the-art geo-targeting capabilities will allow us to raise awareness of our products and services to highly-targeted audiences around the world through an innovative new media,” said Tasneem Domingo, Marketing Manager, PlayUKinternet.

Content delivery network Limelight’s legal problems won’t affect PodShow, says PodShow founder and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry:

We have spoken with LimeLight management and they have assured us they will not go ���dark���. They have been a good partner to us, we trust them and stand by their word and their excellent service.

As with any well planned media infrastructure, PodShow���s platform is completely CDN agnostic. We can use any CDN without any interruption to our service and I would presume most companies that use a CDN for delivery would never allow themselves to be locked in to any one provider for any type of service.

In my personal opinion this story is being overhyped in the ���twitter-verse���. These things usually end up in some form of settlement long before there���s any danger of ���darkness���

Akamai Technologies, which provides technology for the distribution of digital media like podcasts, announced that a jury returned a verdict today in its lawsuit against Limelight Networks. The judgement found that Limelight was infringing on Akamai’s content delivery patent. As a result, the jury awarded Akamai a staggering $45,526,946 in damages, plus interest.

The verdict, which came at the end of a three-week trial in Boston, stemmed from a 2006 lawsuit filed by Akamai. The jury found that Limelight infringed all four of the claims that Akamai had asserted in its Internet content delivery patent, issued in the name of Akamai founders Tom Leighton and the late Daniel Lewin (no relation to the PodcastingNews Lewins).

The jury rejected Limelight���s defense that Akamai���s patent was invalid.

���Today���s ruling recognizes the strength of Akamai���s patent portfolio and is a tangible reflection of our resolve to vigorously defend the Company���s intellectual property,��� said Melanie Haratunian, senior vice president and general counsel of Akamai.

Akamai intends to ask the Court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting Limelight from continuing to sell infringing services. It is unclear whether Limelight could continue operations if it does in fact have to pay the $45 million damage award.

Representatives of Limelight said separately they were “disappointed” with the ruling and “strongly believe” it did not infringe the patent.

Podcasting network representatives were quick to comment (via Twitter) on their own companies’ strengths and immunity to any prospective service outages which might be caused if Limelight were to cease operations.

VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, host of online tech show PulverTV, announced today the launch of PulverTV, which he is calling “The First 100% “Indie Internet TV” Channel.”

The staff at PulverTV are creating 12-14 hours/week of original programming. In addition, they’ve enlisted several dozen producers of independently created Internet TV to include in the daily program schedule. Their goal is to provide a space for independent video content creators to showcase their work and “get their shows discovered,” and to provide viewers with round-the-clock interesting fare.

Pulver, co founder of VoIP telco Vonage, the publisher of VON magazine, and organizer of Voices on the Net (VON) conferences, says, “I first got the idea to turn pulverTV into a 24/7 operation while appreciating the possibilities of personal broadband broadcasting and thinking about ‘What would [cable mogul] Ted Turner do today if he was just started out in television?’ I started thinking about pushing the limits on the practical and possible.”

Pulver has a hefty task ahead of him. As downloadable and streaming-on-demand video offerings proliferate online, a 24/7 Internet TV station will have lots of competition for viewers’ attention.