“Podcasting is failing as a business platform, and has failed to make a mainstream impact.

The news that PodTech only managed to limp into an acquisition therefore came as no surprise. Former PodTech star Robert Scoble admits on Friendfeed that there were plenty of management and board problems and notes “the company burned through $7 million (plus several million in revenues).” PodTech founder John Furrier, commenting on the same Friendfeed thread, asserts “we made some mistakes but [were] directionally correct.” Scoble says a big part of the original plan was the social media star power, supplied by the likes of Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang, Irina Slutsky, and Steve Gillmor.

But even if the stars had stuck around to the end, and the management and board problems were addressed earlier, I have to wonder how well this venture would have done. This was a hyped business built on one of the most hyped technologies of 2005. Once that faded, reality set in. As I pointed out in my original post, there are a lot of factors that are working against podcasting. Making programs is a labor-intensive process requiring special skills. In addition, there is no AdSense or AdWords equivalents for podcasts — advertising has to be sold, produced, and placed by humans.

There are problems with metrics too. While the industry is working on this, there’s still a lot of work to do and it’s uncertain how smaller niche podcasters will be able to benefit.”

Lamont’s view is important to consider, even though seems to disregard the unrelenting growth of interest in podcasts, increasing numbers of podcasters making their living through podcasts and Internet media and the fact that podcasting’s adoption curve is way ahead of its commercialization.

Lamont also is straining to make PodTech representative of podcasting as a whole. PodTech failed to do the most basic task of a content company - make interesting content.

Here’s why you should consider his viewpoint.

Commercial Podcasting Is Hard Work, Like Any Business

Lamont’s key points are that making good podcasts is hard work and that getting advertisers is hard, too.

Both points are true, but that hasn’t kept both companies and individuals from making great podcasts and getting advertisers. Many mainstream content publishers, like NPR, are repurposing their content for podcasting, using it as an easy way to extend their reach. Many publishers are creating free ad-supported  content and distributing it via podcasts and the Web.

And a glance at iTunes’ podcast directory highlights that hundreds of podcasters are using the technology successfully to compete for your attention against global media companies.

While Lamont’s argument is weak and ignores basic technology adoption patterns, it is important to consider because his skeptical attitude is one shared by many.

Many people made wild predictions about podcasting in 2005, even suggesting that it would kill off radio. They are now disappointed in the technology because those wild predictions didn’t happen.

Most podcasters probably won’t make commercial quality podcasts. Most podcasters won’t build successful podcasting businesses.

But there are many podcasters that are doing both, and if the success of popular blogs is any example, the best commercial podcasters will change the media landscape.

Image: penmachine

Wizzard has surprised many people by becoming the largest distributor of digital media via RSS (podcasting). While many other companies took the route of launching online video websites and treating RSS distribution as nothing more than an add-on feature, Wizzard has focused its early efforts in this industry on dominating RSS delivery of media.

Why you may ask?

The quality of content and the reliability of podcasting publishers are head and shoulders above what you find on most video websites. In this new era of the digital lifestyle, content has immense value and consumers are using an expanding array of services on more devices, in more places and offered by more providers than ever before.

A lot of people have bee skeptical about the prospects for podcast networks, and building networks based on downloads, vs. streaming views.

Wizzard’s letter positions the company as taking a long-term approach to building a company based on the growing podcasting download industry, building out dominance in podcast distribution while it looks for a killer-advertising model for podcast downloads.

Full letter below:

Wizzard Letter To Shareholders

Dear Wizzard Shareholder,

We begin this letter in an unconventional way with a quote from a recent Price Waterhouse Coopers Annual Outlook Report which states that digital and mobile distribution will account for 24% of Entertainment and Media Growth in the next five years. The question one must pose is: do you agree with that projection from PWC? Based on our review of the industry and everything we are hearing from all of the major media and entertainment companies we are talking to, Wizzard’s Management firmly believes this projection. Not only do we believe it, but we also believe we have positioned Wizzard to be a major force in the future of digital entertainment and media distribution.

In a very short time, Wizzard has surprised many people by becoming the largest distributor of digital media via RSS (podcasting). While many other companies took the route of launching online video websites and treating RSS distribution as nothing more than an add-on feature, Wizzard has focused its early efforts in this industry on dominating RSS delivery of media. Why you may ask? The quality of content and the reliability of podcasting publishers are head and shoulders above what you find on most video websites. In this new era of the digital lifestyle, content has immense value and consumers are using an expanding array of services on more devices, in more places and offered by more providers than ever before. Publishers and their content are the foundation of any successful digital entertainment and media distribution company. Our content publishers are dedicated to their audiences and depend on Wizzard to publish their shows at the highest technical quality available. Publisher expectations are on the rise and so is the complexity of the publisher’s business with the explosion in the number of media web portals, media applications and devices and dynamic business models. In such an environment, success is with the companies that can provide a consistently simple and uniquely valuable publisher experience. We support the rapidly growing digital publisher demand by offering a turn-key media publishing solution that Management feels strongly is second-to-none and more feature-rich than any other platform of its kind available today. This combination of premium publishers and a powerful publishing platform results in quality content that entertains audiences and excites advertisers.

What we are doing on a daily basis is improving our operations in the near term, while positioning ourselves for long-term success. After our acquisition of Libsyn, we initially worked to improve our services by focusing on the basics such as building digital advertising “insertion” technology, expanding our content distribution platform, and signing our publishing partners to the newly created Wizzard advertising network. We have been rewarded with strong publisher growth from approximately 8,000 at the time of the acquisition to over 12,000 today. Our recently formed business development team is in talks with major television networks, movie studios, telcos and cable companies, all of whom are looking for the right professional platform to grow audiences and monetize their digital content while enhancing their brand and the consumer experience. Understanding the expectations of today’s online publisher is what Wizzard Media does best as our ever-growing roster of publisher-partners clearly demonstrates.

In order to further leverage the expanding digital media and advertising marketplace, we have prioritized our resources to focus on increasing audiences for the shows we distribute by taking a longer-term view than most investors and business managers; the market demands the long-view because content consumption habits and advertiser adoption of new mediums do not evolve in response to quarterly earnings reports. We are focusing on growing distribution channels to expand audiences. We have highly coveted feature channels on YouTube, DailyMotion, Adobe, iTunes and a host of other destination points where audiences go to consume online entertainment. We recently closed a new high profile distribution partner and have several more in various stages of agreement completion. Our business development team is in talks with several major wireless networks, cable companies, affinity sites and a global online portal for expanded distribution. We have recently won digital media “launches” for SpikeTV (Viacom), music superstar Usher and iconic footwear company Puma. We have been given programming time on a leading English language European satellite provider, with a reach of 110 million viewers across 59 countries, through a four hour block of original programming solely created from podcasts. We will be launching a new service at our industry trade show on August 12, 2008 that we expect will expand our distribution reach across the Internet by more than 100% and at the same event we will be launching our much anticipated Wizzard (Flash) Player to the public. This Flash player delivers social networking integration and provides our publishers with a tool to make their shows “go viral” by embedding the player and content on web pages all around the world. This player will go into unrestricted public beta for publishers on July 18, 2008 and will work with MySpace, Facebook and most any other web site. We feel strongly that the Flash player will enable our publishers to defend their positions in the rapidly expanding digital marketplace and monetize their digital content. The Wizzard Media network received over 3,050,000 requests for shows per day in the first quarter of 2008, for a total of approximately 1 million hours of daily programming to 13 million unique audience members. We expect the Wizzard Player to increase our downloads/views rate by several hundred percent in the near term and grow audiences to over 30 million, rivaling many television networks in audience size. We base projections on publicly reported numbers from streaming media companies along with our publisher’s online streaming numbers while using a Flash player currently in place. While we continue to see strong U.S. demand for the shows we distribute, we are seeing significant increased demand internationally with Canada, Great Britain and China leading the way.

As other companies in the video website industry continue to struggle with how to monetize and profit from digital distribution of media, we are convinced we have found some answers. By focusing our efforts on high quality, episodic, subscribable content, we feel strongly that we are in a position to generate substantial revenues and profits in the future through advertising as we continue to execute on our business plan. Our staff of professional “sales pioneers”, who really understand this emerging medium, lead a national sales initiative with small sales teams located in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. They have successfully closed 28 advertising campaigns with 13 different advertisers and are closing business on a more frequent basis as the year progresses. We have several repeat advertisers - a true testament to our methodology - and we have seen a significant increase in requests for proposals and closed deals including Panasonic, SpikeTV and Puma. Our proprietary and powerful advertising insertion technology, along with key word targeting through speech recognition, allows for seamless placement of ads in any area or a specific point of the content or episode. Having the ability to drill down into a huge number of shows using keyword searches enables us to provide a highly targeted advertising opportunity for advertisers. After initial use of the system and showing it to several major brand advertisers, we feel strongly that this system can achieve and surpass our most ambitious expectations as our business grows. With an average show length of approximately 23 minutes, there is the opportunity for multiple 15 and 30 second ads in each episode, thus creating a massive amount of advertising inventory available for revenue growth. In addition to traditional ad insertion, in the next quarter we will introduce three new advertising options for our publishers that are unique to our new Flash Player, including a page peel, surround banners and third party ad overlays.
Looking forward, we continue to be very excited about the prospects for Wizzard. In 2008 and into 2009, we need to execute on our monetization strategies. It will not always be easy, especially if the economy stays soft and advertisers tighten their spending. We are not alone in these challenging times as many similar companies compete with Wizzard for online media advertising dollars. But we do have one major factor in our favor: We are the market leaders in RSS delivery of top shows and that carries a tremendous degree of credibility with advertisers and their agencies.

In the last several weeks Wizzard has had several significant accomplishments. We were added to the Russell MicroCap Index; the stock exchange we list our common shares with (Amex) announced the completion of the merger with the New York Stock Exchange; we were featured in Investors Business Daily, Bloomberg and on Fox Business television. Our long-term institutional investors continue to support our efforts and our cash-on-hand is precisely where we projected it to be when we raised capital in July of last year. While both the economy and the major stock markets are seeing significant fluctuations, Wizzard continues gaining market share, introducing new products, growing revenues and strengthening at all levels of management in anticipation of the rapid growth and opportunities we envision.

We are not aware of many small companies that have relationships with Google and IBM, partnerships with YouTube and Usher, advertisers such as Puma and Panasonic and a high profile, market leading position in the future of entertainment distribution. We strongly believe our stock is undervalued and we believe our market leader position is not properly reflected. Like any investment of capital, the return on that capital over time will determine its wisdom.

Our once “underdog” company has now become the definitive name in podcast distribution and is at the vanguard of the online digital media movement; we are at the forefront of market creation that will satisfy the consumer’s increasing demands for entertainment on their terms, well into the foreseeable future. We feel strongly that we have the right strategy, the right offerings and the right organization and long term investor support to achieve success and realize the promise of a rapidly transforming, growing digital media market. Our second half of 2008 commitment to you is to do all we can to generate strong cash flows, solid net income and attractive returns for you, our loyal shareholder. Let us continue to create this market together.

About Wizzard Media

Wizzard Media is the industry’s leading podcast hosting network, with an unprecedented one billion-plus download requests in 2007. Podcasts are a means for independent and professional content creators to publish audio and video shows for the world to enjoy over the Internet or on mp3 players, such as the Apple iPod and the Microsoft Zune. Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon, but Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per day through media aggregators like Apple’s iTunes, Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace and other podcast aggregators. For more information, please visit www.wizzard.tv. Wizzard Media is a division of Wizzard Software, a leader in speech technology development.

The malware embeds malicious content into multimedia files based on the Advanced Systems Format (ASF), a widely used format for video and audio content such as MP3 and WMA music files, WMV video files and others. When trying to play back the infected files, the user can be tricked into believing a codec is needed to play back the content. When downloading the advertised fake codec, the user would end up installing malware instead.

By infecting the multimedia files, the attackers are using (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks to spread Windows malware. Windows users downloading from P2P networks should also be sensitive to pop-ups appearing upon playing a downloaded video or audio stream.

One of the media file infector’s capabilities is to also convert MP2 and MP3 files (MPEG-1) into Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. The malware injects a malicious command into any such ASF files on the victim’s harddisk, causing Windows Media Player to redirect to a malicious resource on the Web (the fake codec).

As soon as the multimedia file is played back and the fake codec is being run by a tricked user, pop-ups from Windows Media Player, asking for a codec to install, do not appear anymore - creating the false impression that a codec has been successfully installed.

At instructables, leevonk has shared instructions on making a Tupperware iPod Boombox.

The cheap DIY project “uses dollar store Tupperware, styrofoam and cheap speakers to make a surprisingly cool boombox/stereo.”

via Lifehacker

Users are reporting incompatibilities between Mighty Seek’s PodPress, the popular free podcasting add-on for WordPress, and the recently-announced WordPress 2.6.

Here’s a typical message from the PodPress forum:

I installed Wordpress 2.6 (the full version, not the Release Candidate) today but am having problems as soon as I activate Podpress. When I try to edit an existing post from the front page or from inside the Admin Panel, I get the error message “Internet Explorer can’t open the page [address of page] Operation cancelled.” but I see it only with IE. With FF it works like a charm. I thought it was out since longer already..that’s what you get for upgrading without informing yourself in advance.

Already last time I swore that I will never install a Wordpress or Podpress update in the 1st month they are released..always have problems with upgrades.

If you’re a podcaster using PodPress, you will want to wait to update WordPress for a couple of weeks. Mighty Seek’s Dan Kuykendall says that a PodPress update should be released within 10 days.

AT&T has just announced a fantastic perk for iPhone owners with AT&T contracts, free WiFi for iPhone customers on the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network. This opens up more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks, to iPhone users to use for free on their iPhone, laptop or other device.

There are AT&T hotspots at:

• 12 Airports
• 31 Hotels
• 23 Universities
• 18 Convention Centers
• 5 Sports Centers
• 8,000 + Restaurants
• 700 + Bookstores
• 50 + Supermarkets

You can search for the free WiFi hotspots with AT&T’s WiFi locator.

It would be ideal for AT&T to build their WiFi locator into a location-aware iPhone app, so it would be easy for iPhone owners to find the closest free hotspot.

Update: AT&T has yanked the announcement from its site. According to a report at CNet, the page was posted by mistake: “We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone,” according to Wes Warnock, an AT&T spokesman. “The Web page was posted in error and is being removed.”

AT&T just killed any positive buzz it could have gotten from this announcement.

via iPhoneAlley

Now, VentureBeat reports that podcasting startup PodTech has been purchased by ViewPartner, a communications technology company.  PodTech sold for under half a million dollars, a fraction of the $7.5 million invested in the company.

PodTech struggled from the beginning to find a direction, and failed despite:

• multiple rounds of generous funding;
• unrelenting growth of interest in podcasts;
• A-list talent from the blogging world;
• people abandoning television for Internet video in droves; and
• growing interest among advertisers in podcasts and other Internet media.

Instead of riding this wave of growth, the company tried to make its name with video podcasts “just slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry.”

“The network has about 20 shows they list on their website. Have you heard of any of them?” asked RocketBoom creator Andrew Baron last year. “They are mostly missing that important role of creating compelling content that will resonate with enough people to sustain and grow.”

In addition to struggling to make watchable content, PodTech struggled with its PR. Valleywag called it “the Valley’s worst video network.” TechCrunch told the company “if your messaging isn’t clear, don’t shoot the messenger. Clean up your own mess first.”

Even Fake Steve Jobs something bad to say about the company, saying PodTech is “heading for the big sleep.”

ViewPartner hopes to capitalize on PodTech’s corporate consulting business.

Update: Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron’s take on this: “In short, they first came out of the stables thinking that building a studio ad network would be a no brainer and spent over $7M building out shows and an ad sales department. Not only were they too soon and up against too much compeition on the ad sales side, they didn’t have anyone in the network who could identify what good content was.“

Here’s the text of the ViewPartner/PodTech announcement:

ViewPartner Corporation Buys PodTech

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ViewPartner, a multi-million dollar company based in Los-Angeles that owns and operates communication technologies, has bought PodTech Network, the leading social-media company for developing, producing, and distributing podcasts to drive brand engagement for Fortune 1000 companies. The core executive, production and creative team of PodTech remains in tact. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

According to Alex Varonos, CEO of ViewPartner, “The PodTech team led by co-founder, Jason Lopez, and Darold Massaro, vice president of sales, is what attracted us to this company. We believe in these people and will make certain that PodTech and its clients have the financial and strategic support to take podcasting or any kind of broadcasting on the Net to the next level.”

Mr. Varonos explained that PodTech has the platform to drive brand engagement. “And the platform will be enhanced with capabilities that just an agency or service organization cannot deliver. PodTech will be the first to deliver HD quality broadcast on the Internet within the next year. It will make the brand experience richer for clients. And this is the team that will take it to market.”

Jason Lopez, PodTech cofounder and vice president of creative development, commented, “This assures that the people and companies with great stories to tell will be able to do so in a compelling format. With ViewPartner, we are assured of the tools to move from downloadable media to the next generation of communication. Our team comes from broadcast media, so we’re really excited about where this platform can go. It will be an exciting ride for our clients.”

Added Darold Massaro, PodTech vice president of sales, “While we continue to support our existing network and provide quality video and social media strategies with a total focus on client satisfaction, we will be announcing continuous upgrades to our technology. Our clients will be on the cutting edge of distributed video and audio communication.”

MetaFest hopes to combine the best of interactive online video-viewing with the best of the live-audience offline film festival experience.

Selected films will have a theatrical premiere in San Francisco in November 2008, will be showcased on Metacafe.com for six months, and be screened at dozens of “microcinema” events across the U.S. and around the world through the first half of 2009.

The MetaFest call for entries, which opens today, invites short video, film and digital media submissions of 10 minutes or less that are narrative, humorous, artistic, dramatic, animated, documentary, mockumentary, music, experimental, alternative or avant-garde in any genre, format or style.

Films can be uploaded for consideration through September 10th, 2008.

Details

The MetaFest jury includes Hillman Curtis, an award-winning filmmaker, designer and author whose books include “Creating Short Films for the Web,” and Glenn R. Phillips, who is senior project specialist and consulting curator of contemporary programs for the Getty Research Institute and recently curated the “California Video” exhibition.

“Short-form video is a rapidly emerging entertainment genre, and content creators – independent filmmakers to boutique production firms and major media companies – are beginning to make highly entertaining, innovative works well-suited to the online medium,” said Mark Poggi, senior manager of content marketing for Metacafe. “We expect MetaFest to showcase some truly original short films that tell great stories, feature quality production values and use technology creatively.

The jury will select a grand prize winner who will be awarded $5,000 cash and a “short-short” award winner for outstanding work in a video of three minutes or less who will receive $2,000 cash. Two audience-choice award winners – one selected at the theatrical premiere and one selected by Metacafe viewers – will receive $1,000 each as well as DVD selections worth $250 from the Microcinema DVD catalog.\

All award winners will be featured on the Metacafe home page for 10 days and receive additional exposure through marketing and publicity efforts. Additionally, the creator of each film selected for the MetaFest offline program will receive a cash honorarium of $50. Creators of MetaFest entries that meet the program requirements for the Metacafe Producer Rewards program are eligible to be paid for their work at the rate of $5 per 1,000 views.

WebTrends

Features of WebTrends video tracking:

• Track visitor use across all major video formats, including Flash, FLEX and Microsoft Silverlight.
• Track visitor use of Windows Media, Real Media, Apple Quicktime and embedded video files.
• Connect visitor interactions with online video to the actions they take afterwards.
• Follow daily viewing trends and statistics for all of their web videos.
• Identify and optimize how and when audiences engage with online video.
• Integrate insight about video use with other online data.
• In conjunction with WebTrends Score, determine which types of interactions appeal to core audiences, as well as the relative value of visitors who view videos.

The new service is part of the companies WebTrends Analytics solution.

• Amazon is debuting a streaming video store. The service, Amazon Video on Demand, will offer about 40,000 streaming videos for customers to choose from.
• TiVo is adding YouTube support. TiVo’s YouTube support was announced in March, and is available to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3 DVRs, including the TiVo HD, which retails for around $299.
• Lionsgate has cut a revenue-sharing agreement with YouTube that will create a Lionsgate-branded channel, where advertising will be placed on clips of Lionsgate video clips, ranging from the “Saw” franchise to classics like “Dirty Dancing.” Lionsgate’s TV programming, including “Weeds,” is also a part of the deal.

These are all important deals, but, we’re waiting for the big deal - the deal that brings long-tail ad-supported Internet television to your television.

You don’t need a DVR, or even a video store, if there’s a warehouse of long-tail video available for free on the Internet, and that’s exactly what we see Hulu building.

If Microsoft could get Hulu on the XBox 360, or Apple could get it on Apple TV, it would change the world of Internet video. You’d have a huge library of free movies and television on demand, on your television. They could add a rental option, too; pay a small fee and the ads go away.

Apple’s done the best job of bringing social media video to the TV, but the company that snags free long tail Internet television and movies and brings them to your TV will leap to the head of the pack and become the iPod of Internet television.