Category: Audio Drama

Sponsors will Spend $1 Billion on Podcasts in the U.S. Next Year

What? Is this for real? Is podcasting really taking over the universe? Where are Rick and Morty to protect us? Well, at least now we know why Steven Spielberg’s Amblin’ Partners has been spending one Acme Bunch O’Bucks getting the TV series rights to so many ficpods. Whoa!

by eMarketer Editors

Podcast listenership in the US has been soaring in recent years and advertising dollars are following. Podcast ad spending is a bright spot amid lackluster digital radio spending. According to eMarketer’s latest forecast, US podcast ad spending will surpass 20% of digital radio ad spending this year and cross the $1 billion mark next year.

By the end of 2020, podcast ad spending in the US will reach $782.0 million, up 10.4% from last year, giving it a 21.0% share of the US digital radio ad market. And in 2021, spending will jump nearly 45% to $1.13 billion.

“Growth in podcast advertising spend will be more resilient this year relative to digital radio advertising as a whole, which will see double-digit declines,” said eMarketer forecasting director at Insider Intelligence Shelleen Shum. “The continued growth in podcast advertising is no surprise, as investments have made podcasts accessible to a wider audience. The news genre, a focus of many podcast advertisers, has performed well during the pandemic. While some ad campaigns were paused in H1 due to the uncertainty from COVID-19 lockdowns, we expect a rebound in Q3 and Q4.”

Only a very small percentage of podcast advertising is bought programmatically. This year, just 4.0% will be programmatic, with that figure increasing to 6.0% next year. eMarketer expects triple-digit growth to continue through 2021, as investments in audience measurement and the shift from untrackable baked-in ads toward dynamically inserted ones pave the way for programmatic buys. By 2022, 8.0% of podcast ads will be traded programmatically.

“One of the key challenges in podcast advertising is the lack of uniformity in measurement,” Shum said. “The IAB has released a set of guidelines to establish a common set of ad metrics for podcasts, which should bring some standardization to the industry and give advertisers more confidence….”

Read it all at emarketer.com

‘Archive 81’ Podcast to Become Streaming Video Series at Netflix

Mainstream showbiz has been snatching up podcasts for awhile now, and we just learned that one of this TVWriter™ minion’s faves is making its way through the Netflix development tunnel. “O frabjous day! Callooh callay!”

by Jacob Fisher

…A series based on the found footage horror podcast Archive 81 is in early development at Netflix.

Archive 81 ?is a found footage podcast horror drama exploring the supernatural and gentrification in the big city through a found-­footage format. Set in the greater New York City area, the show’s time period alternates between the present day and the mid­-90s. The show follows Dan, a solitary archivist who works at a remote facility where he has been tasked with cataloging hundreds of hours of old audio tape.

Dan’s employer is the City of New York’s Housing Historical Society… or so he thinks. Many of the recorded tapes appear to consist of old interviews between a social worker named Melody Pendrass and the residents of a mysterious apartment tower block known as The Visser Building. It’s not clear what Melody’s looking for in her interviews, but the more tenants she talks to, the creepier things get. As Dan probes deeper into the tapes and the mysterious origins of the Visser building, Melody’s story starts to reveal unsettling facts about the archive, his employers, and even the nature of the physical world we live in.

The podcast begun on April 5th, 2016 and is in its third season. New episodes will be released every other Wednesday. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. The podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Radiopublic. Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger, who created the iconic podcast series together, will serve as co-producers on the upcoming series for Netflix….

Read it all at discussingfilm.net

The Latest PodNews

What? You thought we weren’t going to give you more podcasting news? Sorry, Charlie, but here at TVWriter™ we’re still big believers in the future of fiction podcasting and its potential as the best/cheapest way to prove yourselves as writers and content creators. So without further ado…

via PodNews.Net

The podcast app that’s eight times bigger than you thought

Thank you to our latest subscribers, including folks from Penguin Random House, New Zealand’s Mediaworks, Colorado Public Radio, Sony Music, PRX and Oxford Road. Tell your colleagues!

Read it all at podnews.net

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY NEWS AUDIO EDITION – 06/11/2020

by Bob Tinsley

Why should you as a visitor to TVWriter™ be interested in creating audio fiction? Why should you be interested in making podcasts? Discoverability, that’s why.

Here’s the latest news to help you and your show get discovered: 

  • I TOLD YOU SO.

New iHeart Podcast Thriller Light House Provides Comfortable Chills.

Forbes Magazine keeps covering fiction podcasts. Light House, a new release from Bamfer Productions and iHeartRadio continues the ancient tradition of haunted house stories in audio format. Written and directed by Jeff Heimbuch, who also created the comedy/horror series Return Home which has been running since 2016, Light House debuted at #1 on the fiction podcast charts for Apple. It stars Aly Trasher from Hornet, The Source, and Cerebrum. If you can get Forbes to cover your podcast, I think you’re well on your way.

https://bit.ly/2LWE6w8

  • RESOURCES, PART 1.

How to Make a Fiction Podcast: The Ultimate Guide.

Matthew McLean, one of the creators of A Scottish Podcast, takes you on a guided tour of the process of making an audio fiction podcast. He covers everything from story format, writing, finding and rewarding talent, to launching, growing, and monetizing. Each section is easy to read and relatively short. Links out to further illustrate or expand on his points are liberally distributed through the document. Appropriate for everyone from those just thinking about starting a podcast to those already in the weeds.

https://bit.ly/2XlJSg5

  • RESOURCES, PART 2.

What Does 44100Hz Mean? Podcast Sample Rates.

Now that you’re getting into the detail of podcast production, you need to know about sample rates. You don’t need to know much, and this article by the aforementioned Matthew McLean will inform you without hurting your head. A quick and informative read.

https://bit.ly/2XCuADV

  • RESOURCES, PART 3.

Archers Actors Record At Home During The Coronavirus Pandemic.

Since January 1, 1951, five 15-minute episodes (since 1998, six 12½-minute episodes) of the soap opera, The Archers, have been transmitted each week, at first on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently on the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4). It has been available as a podcast since 2007. Since the advent of COVID-19 and the subsequent shelter-in-place orders, there was no way to continue recording. Until now. Archers actors are now recording from their homes using the setups shown in this photo essay. If you want to record and don’t have a studio available, these setups work just fine.

https://bbc.in/2yI6XkL

  • IF YA WANNA WRITE, YA GOTTA LISTEN.

Return Home.

From the website: “Return Home is the story of Jonathan Barker, who returns to his home of Melancholy Falls, NJ, after five years away. An unknown entity beckons him back East, in order to unravel the mystery of what his home town has become…or has always been. Reunited with his best friends, Buddy and Ami, Jonathan must discover the secrets of Melancholy Falls, and why he was told to return home.”

The sound design is spare, but first-rate, not intrusive or overwhelming. The music, by Kori Celeste, punctuates and supports the story-telling without getting in the way. Cliff hangers abound making you keep clicking on that next episode.

Heimbuch has also leveraged his IP into a book of short stories available on Amazon, so there’s another lesson for you.

http://www.returnhomepodcast.com/

https://amzn.to/3bTMPJW

Until next week, same Pod-time, same Pod-channel, keep listening and  creating.

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY NEWS AUDIO EDITION – 06/04/2020

by Bob Tinsley

Why should you as a visitor to TVWriter™ be interested in creating audio fiction? Why should you be interested in making podcasts? Discoverability, that’s why.

Here’s the latest news to help you and your show get discovered: 

  • I TOLD YOU SO.

Film Graduates Pivot With Podcast For Amazon.

Griffith Film School (Australia) alumni have written, produced and directed a new scripted podcast for Amazon’s Audible platform. Beyond Strange Lands features an all-star cast which includes Peter Phelps and Sacha Horler. The podcast was originally designed as a proof of concept for a TV sci-fi adventure series, as part of a Screen Queensland initiative. 

Simon Taylor, co-writer of Beyond Strange Lands along with David Peterson, said, “I think filmmakers need to be able to be agile, and find the best way to tell their story. I hope this project inspires our students at GFS to try their hand at scripted podcasts – it is the perfect vehicle for young scriptwriters.”

https://news.griffith.edu.au/2020/04/23/film-graduates-pivot-with-podcast-for-amazon/

  • RESOURCES, PART 1.

Vortex – The Big Finish Magazine.

Vortex is the free, in-house magazine of Big Finish, one of the largest audio production houses in the world, and the ONLY licensed outlet for full-cast Dr. Who audio fiction. The magazine, downloadable for free as a PDF file, is an audio (and Dr. Who) fan’s treasure trove of behind-the-scenes information. The latest issue, #135, has an article on how they’ve switched from studio recording to remote recording. This is something every budding podcast creator needs to know.

https://www.bigfinish.com/vortex

  • RESOURCES, PART 2.

The HEAR Now Festival is Online This Year.

The HEAR Now Festival, June 11-14, 2020, exposes its audiences to recent developments in audio preservation by showcasing newly restored and archived award-winning audio dramas. 

One of the best audio fiction festivals in the country went online this year, and you can attend all the presentations remotely for free, excepting the two workshops which will cost $195 each. Sign up on the schedule page and pick the presentations you want to attend. You’ll get notifications when they start.

https://www.hearnowfestival.org/schedule.html

  • RESOURCES, PART 3.

Greater Boston: Live Virtual Mini-episode: “The Council of Evil.”

Greater Boston is a bi-monthly full-cast audio drama set in the Boston metro area, blending the real and the unreal, the historical and the fantastical. Through EventBrite they are planning a free virtual live Greater Boston mini-episode recording, “The Council of Evil.” Sign up at the link below to witness the goodness. And it’s free!

https://bit.ly/2M1mJKD

  • IF YA WANNA WRITE, YA GOTTA LISTEN.

King Falls AM.

King Falls AM centers on a lonely little mountain town’s late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants. This show follows the format of Welcome to Night Vale though, I think, more — coherent? Maybe? Is that the word I want? Whatever, I like it. I particularly like the interplay between Sammy, the on-air host and his producer, Ben, though I can’t leave out Deputy Troy, either. With 100 episodes in the can, I think they have it figured out. Listen and enjoy. 

http://www.kingfallsam.com/

Until next week, same Pod-time, same Pod-channel, keep listening and  creating.