My view of Australian podcasting is that it is very much dominated by traditional media outlets, both TV and radio stations. If I was to look into the Australian iTunes store under podcasts right now, I can comfortably predict that it will be dominated by programs not created by podcast presenters.
Leaving out the video podcasts that I have no experience in watching, the radio station podcasts in particular tend to be a highlights show of a particular program. For instance on Triple M, I listen to "The Shebang" (breakfast) and "Spoonman" (late night) to quote two examples. Each program is on air for 3 hours and you can listen to a normal radio, stream live from the Triple M website or download a podcast. Out of the 3 hours of content, Spoonman averages between 20 and 40 minutes per podcast and The Shebang averages around 40 minutes.
The commercial networks will hide behind the fact that "we can not play music on podcasts for copyright reasons" but they are quite happy to stream online live. Of course, Triple M is a music station so you would expect Triple M to be music dominated.
Occasionally on The Shebang, the management of Triple M let hosts Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box pick the music instead of playing the station's playlist. For some reason when this happens, the average 40 minute podcast drops down to 20 minutes if you are lucky because "Marty and Fifi picked the music but we can't play it on a podcast." Does that mean that Marty and Fifi talked less that day and did less segments and played more music?
As a shiftworker, I rarely listen to radio now since I have become involved in podcasting as both a listener and a producer. I like the ability to listen to what I want when I want it and also to listen to the show minus music, ads, news, traffic reports etc. I find that I'd rather listen to a podcast from The Shebang rather than the live version even on the rare occasions that I could listen to them live.
However, music radio stations are not the only ones podcasting. While I can't comment on the ABC based content, podcasting is seemingly not high on the agenda of the two major commercial talk networks Macquaire & Southern Cross. Based on my home market of Sydney, you may be lucky to hear 10-20 minutes of a 3 hour talk program. While our talk programs do feature the occasional song, there are not as many songs as on the music stations. The one shining light so far that I have found is the "Chip for Brains" segment about technology on 2GB on Thursday nights at 10pm as a part of the Brian Wilshire program. Out of an hour's content live on air, an average podcast lasts for 40 minutes.
Radio stations in Australia have seemingly not picked up on the LBC model in London where you can get a "free sample" of a program that lasts for about 20 minutes. However the difference here is that via LBC, you can pay to hear the entire program minus news, traffic reports and ads. Based on a 3 hour program, the 20 minutes in the free version jumps to between 2 and 2 and a half hours. For this, you can pay as little as 2 pounds per month for all LBC shows on a 6 month subscription (which is what I have). I am not sure if Australian stations will go down this path, however.
Before I move to other podcast content here in Australia in part 2, here is today's top podcasts in Australia based on the Australian iTunes store's listing. These listings rarely seem to change.
Where possible, I'll list the origin of these podcasts.
- 1: The Chaser (ABC) - TV program
- 2: Summer Heights High (ABC) - TV program
- 3: Thank God You're Here (10) - TV program
- 4: Family Guy (Fox) - TV program
- 5: Best of You Tube - internet
- 6: The Simpsons (10/Fox) - TV program
- 7: Ricky Gervais - comedian
- 8: Hamish & Andy (Austereo) - Radio program
- 9: Happy Tree Friends
- 10: High School Musical 2 - Movie
- 11: Enough Rope (ABC) - TV program
- 12: American Dad - TV program
- 13: National Geographic video
- 14: Triple J: new music podcast - Radio
- 15: War on Everything Chaser - parody based on a TV program
- 16: Scrubs - TV program
- 17: Ministry of Sound - Music
- 18: Sex Tips @ Entercourse TV
- 19: Rove Love (10) - TV program
- 20: Comedy Central Stand Up Comedy - TV
- 21: Get This (Austereo) - axed radio program
- 22: Global Service (BBC) - radio program
- 23: Extras (HBC)
- 24: Discovery Channel Video - based on TV programs
- 25: Australian Mac World Weekly
This illustrates perfectly my point - Australian podcasting is dominated at the top of the iTunes tree by programs that are not true podcasts but there is hope that I will talk about in part 2 of this article.
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