Here comes the next thing in podcasting… A mass podcast you have to pay for…
The Ricky Gervais Show, one of the most popular podcasts on Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store, is moving to a paid-only format to be sold by audio book specialist Audible.
Audible plans to announce on Tuesday that it will start selling episodes of Gervais’ show beginning with a new “season two” collection of episodes, which will begin next week. Audible will charge $1.95 per episode or $6.95 for the season, which will include at least four episodes by the creator and star of television’s “The Office.” Audible’s exclusive deal also runs for a “season three,” which will start in the fall.
Now, The Ricky Gervais Show has been one of the top-rating podcasts on iTunes. The whole show is prety loose, very like that jokey style of morning-show radio. I’m not sure people are going to pay for it. My feeling is that people might pay for more ‘solid’ podcast content, particularly something that would benefit from two or more listens.
But we’ll see, won’t we? If it were me, I think I would have done a sponsorship deal for the show. After all, they have a lot of listeners. They might not have that many left after charging $1.95 an episode.
