Podcast numbers

Wizzard Media just released some interesting numbers that have been fun to play with... Wizzard owns some of the bigger podcast hosts, including Libsyn, so they probably have a decent sample size. They report:

[I]n the month of April across the entire network of shows, we fulfilled over 83 million download requests for audio and video files. The system logged and processed well over 100 million downloads in total; however we filter out image downloads and other files that aren’t MP3, MP4, M4V, MOV, WMV, AAC, M4b, FLV and AVI files.

So, that's a pretty huge number. Rob Walch at Podcast 411 did some number crunching, and he estimates that this data translates to roughly 10 million podcast consumers. Now, compared to TV and terrestrial radio, that's small potatoes, but considering that this a medium that hit mainstream accessibility sometime within the last two years, it's pretty impressive.

One other piece of cool information from the Wizzard post... the top ten cities where they are delivering podcasts. Notice it's not just the top 10 cities in terms of population here in the US... Sacramento at #2!

• New York
• Sacramento
• Los Angeles
• Washington DC
• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Minneapolis-St. Paul
• San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
• Philadelphia
• Louisville
• Salt Lake City

Paid video downloads soon to go extinct?

A new report from Forrester Research says that pay per view downloads are soon to go the way of the do-do, replaced by ad-supported videos. Anecdotally, I know a lot of people who prefer to wait to watch a show like Heroes online at NBC.com or Veronica Mars on the CW's website rather than pay $1.99 for an ad-free (and higer resolution/sized) version through iTunes Music Store. Still, I think it's premature to signal the end of pay-to-own videos... the Forrester report is $775, so I'm going to go ahead and pass on buying and reading it cover to cover. Maybe they need an ad-supported version? Hmmmm...

What does this spell for video podcasters? It's not clear, to be honest... podcasters seem to find more success monetizing their shows through merchandise and ad revenue rather than through "premium" feeds anyways, but that may change. To be continued...

U.S. Blogging Laws

Great stuff on blogger law from Aviva Directory... hat tip to Politics and Technology for the pointer. Topics covered include:

* Whether to Disclose Paid Posts
* Is Deep Linking Legal?
* The Legal Use of Images and Thumbnails
* Laws that Protect You From Stolen Content
* Domain Name Trademark Issues
* Handling Private Data About Your Readers
* Who Owns User-Developed Content and Can You Delete It
* The Duty to Monitor Your Blog Comments, and Liability
* Basic Tax Law Issues in Blogging
* Limited Liability Laws and Incorporating
* Spam Laws and Which Unsolicited Emails are Legal
* Are Bloggers Protected from Journalism Shield Laws

Microsoft drops its Portable Media Center

File this under, "this just in... sky: blue, water: wet." When MS announced the Zune I was surprised they decided to keep on the venerable Portable Media Center. Welllll, it's over. Hasta la vista baby. Maybe they needed to sell a few more out of the warehouse before pulling the plug? How'd you feel if you were the last person to buy one of these? Probably a lot like the last guy to buy a Newton (that would be me... ouch).

Portland bound

I'll be in Portland for a week on business so blogging might be a bit lighter than normal... enjoy the weekend!

podcasts streaming to your cell phone

Leave it to the Europeans and their mobile phone systems... streaming podcasts. More evidence that this is the future. If I were a betting kind of guy, I'd put my money on this type of technology outpacing satellite radio, with the possible (narrow) exception of rural communities that cannot get mobile reception.

Sirius and Podshow divorce

So satellite radio will no longer broadcast a select number of podcasts. This news broke a few days ago, but I honestly don't think it demonstrates much other than Sirius and Podshow decided that the experiment was over. Does this mean podcasting is waning? I doubt it... I have to question the original premise... content that has a major feature of being freely available 24/7 on the Internet via an RSS feed, and playable on demand was also being featured in particular time slots via a subscription service that required additional equipment. Hmmm. Wonder why that didn't take off? Siriusly (heh)... I have to believe most listeners were shifting towards the on-demand content rather than waiting with bated breath for the next episode of Dawn and Drew to come through the satellites. Why wait? If you had a satellite radio, I'm guessing you had access to a podcatcher and a computer.

Let's also face it... the shows that were featured on Sirius may have been too niche for a broader audience, as some have suggested. Bottom line... the satellite market probably is not the next logical place for podcasting growth. If podcasters are looking for over the air distribution, the best bet may be the continuing conversion of mobile phones with MP3 players.

Ahhhh, yeah... I believe that's a semi-unintentional iPhone reference. I keep thinking that faster data transfer, plus vast networks, plus great players means effortless wireless delivery. There are (bad) methods where this works now, but I think the days of needing a computer to sync a podcast to a player may seem quaint in the not so distant future. And the (failed?) Sirius-Podshow experiment will be a distant memory then as well.