Podcasts top playlists

A third of UK publishers have already launched podcasts, and another half intend to do so in the coming year, according to a poll taken by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), an industry body for online publishers.

The poll was conducted at an AOP podcasting seminar. Only 13% of the 60 delegates had no plans to introduce podcasts – digital audio files that can be downloaded from the web and listened to on an MP3 player such as an Apple iPod.

Alex White, AOP’s director, said the poll was more a “finger in the air” exercise than a scientific survey but added that delegates included newspaper publishers, broadcasters and publishers. “People are experimenting in a number of ways,” said White.

Although the most well-known example is the Ricky Gervais podcast on the GuardianUnlimited newspaper site, other publishers are using podcasts to offer existing content in audio format. “People take the content they have already and offer it to users in a new way that’s more convenient for them,” said White ( click here for more Guardian news ).

In other cases, she said, publishers were using them to complement existing content: the Daily Telegraph , for example, had covered the story of
trans-oceanic rowers Ben Fogle and James Cracknell on its site with a link to a podcast of the pair being interviewed as they stepped out of the boat.

White said that no clear business model for generating revenue had yet emerged for podcasting: “The publishers are experimenting and hope it will become apparent.”

A number of AOP members have reached the iTunes top 50 playlist, but White ex pressed concern that Apple did not publish information on how it
compiled its data: “If you get into the top 50, that really improves the uptake, but there’s not much transparency in how iTunes achieve their
rankings.”