Josh Adley, head of business development at audio producer Wisebuddah, was in conversation with The Media Podcast presenter Olly Mann, and explained the attraction of podcasts.

 

“You can listen to podcasts anywhere via your mobile phone – during your commute, while driving, in the gym, while cooking. Podcasts are tailor-made for mobility and multitasking, which make them really relevant to how people live their lives today,” he said.

 

“The key listening periods are those commute periods of 6 to 8am and 5 to 7pm, and the bedtime hour around 11pm.”

 

Podcasting – on-demand radio shows – only began in 2004, with BBC Radio an early adopter via iPlayer. The first successful independent podcast was the Ricky Gervais Show in 2006, which reached a then world record of 260,00 downloads per episode.

 

In the same year, Apple got behind podcasting with its iTunes service and, by 2013, the US tech giant claimed one billion downloads worldwide. By 2018, there were 50 billion downloads of podcasts worldwide.

 

Podcasting has become a tool for developing genres in other media, argued Adley. “It’s a quicker way to put an idea out there and build on it – it’s a lot more affordable,” he said.

 

It can also feed the development of ambitious projects such as US psychological thriller Homecoming. The talent like it too because it’s easier for them to find the time to record audio. Adley cited Homecoming star David Schwimmer, who recorded the first series in just eight hours. Homecoming went on to become an Amazon TV drama.

 

“Everyone in TV understands that we have to be more than TV producers and have to piece together other media to generate global propositions. Podcasts fit very well, especially at a tenth of the cost of an hour of TV drama,” added Wisebuddah MD Tim Hammond.