• Gervais takes a step backward

    As noted on TCAL, The amazingly popular Ricky Gervais Podcast, which has completed it’s 12 episode run recently is set for a second series beginning on 28th February. The show, which has been recorded in the Guinness Book or Records as the most downloaded Podcast in the world, recorded an average of 261,670 downloads a week in its first month and was hailed by many as the first real mainstream step into a typically offbeat pass-time.
    The success of the show was probably due to a number of facts. The show was free, it was original content (rather than a re-run of the XFM radio shows) and it featured a world famous and critically acclaimed comedian. Now, however, at least one of those facts are due to change; the second series of the show will only be available to paying customers.
    As mentioned before on this blog, charging for podcasts is not a unique phenomenon however this is one of the first podcast-unique shows to begin a charge and its popularity is sure to make the result much more interesting.
    Listenership of the show is certain to drop dramatically once charges are introduced; that’s not to say that it will not be a profitable move. It is unlikely, however, to be something that will be much copied at present, not many podcasters have the same clout as Gervais does, certainly not in the mainstream market.
    It will be some time, in my opinion, until podcasts are used to their best effect. Podcasts need to shake off the shakles that mainstream radio seems desperate to impose upon it. They should not be seen as vehicles for radio re-runs; this relegates them to little more than Video Plus enabled VCR’s for the iPod generation. They medium will stay in the domain of ‘geeks’ and home broadcasters as long as people at the fore of traditional communication ignore their potential and resist the urge to charge.