Podcasts

01Apr07

Over the last few months my consumption of podcasts has increased dramatically, and I now subscribe to 14 podcasts (including video podcasts), I receive all of these through iTunes. They range from gagets/technology to sport and comedy. These are produced by a variety of sources including the BBC, Microsoft, The Guardian, TWIT and many smaller companies and individuals.

Over the last year or so podcasts have grown in popularity and now form an important part of the content available on the internet. Companies are getting more and more involved in them, producing shows to go hand in hand with their products/events.
Its great to see the BBC embracing podcasts and offering a wide range of shows to download ranging from the Radio 4 Business Programme to Russell Brands show on Radio 2. The high quality of these podcasts has raised the bar for everyone and inspired many other large corporations to create a podcasting presence.

It is not just large companies who are creating podcasts, the fantastic thing about them is anyone with a microphone can record one and make it available for anyone around the world to download. This has enabled thousands of different subjects and areas to be covered and what ever your interest there is bound to be a podcast that covers it.

As the amount of podcasts I consume has increased, there has been a reduction in the amount of conventional media (TV, Radio, Newspaper) that I consume. As the popularity of podcasts increase I can see them evolution of our media consumption habits change. More and more TV and Radio will become one aspect of our media consumption. Podcasts, video podcasts, movie and music downloads and video on demand services will come together with existing TV and Radio networks to provide a portfolio of media outlets which we can choose from to entertain and inform us.

The launch of the Apple TV and other similar devices is the first step to integrating all these other media services into our living room and off of our computers. This will bring these streams of content into peoples lives more and more and allow users to easily switch between sources.

This is an interesting time to watch the evolution of podcasts and observe their path into more and more peoples daily lives. The competition for consumers attention is going to grow, with more and more media sources competing for users.

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