Podcasting? Do most people in India even know about it? Lets read more to find out and also try and conclude if there is a future to podcasting at all.
People are talking blogs etc these days. A small section in India is also talking about podcasts. Internationally it is a rage! But then is there a future to this tool at all? As to what I see, it doesn’t seem quite exciting to the consumer but yes, it sure seems so to the creator. You will find plenty of researches online which will support the bright future and all the bucks that it can gather for most, but a major point here is that it doesn’t encourage communication.
To move on, let me tell give you a brief about ‘Podcasting’. It is basically an audio / video file available on a website. It can (almost automatically!) be downloaded and heard at a later time on different player options.
A podcast can be created easily. You just need a microphone, a simple software and a place to store all of this. But if you’re a listener and it’s going to be a task locating the one you want. You only have the title to decide if it seems interesting to you. You might be lucky enough to see some text giving you the details of the podcast though.
You cannot fast forward it! You will have to go through the boring content until you find the part that interests you. And you sure have to be fast at grasping what is being said. Or Whoosh! Its gone already!
There is a lot of research (you can find online) which you will see to check if Podcasts really have a future or no. To cite a few examples, According to FeedBurner, podcasts outnumber radio stations (Ben Charny, eWEEK, April 17, 2006). "FeedBurner now distributes 47,000 different podcasts. This means there are more podcasters than radio stations in a country!
Internet research shows that the total US audience for podcasts has crossed 10million in 2006, 25million in 2008 and around 50million in 2010. WOW!
Podcast ad spends are also a thing that the Indian market now needs to turn to. The US spends in millions on these!
These were some facts. Now, are podcasts the thing that you are looking for? (I am not!) There are several reasons to this. One of the main one’s being, it is a one way medium. With the internet growing at a pace as fast as to what we see today, interaction is the key to growth. With something as static as this, growth looks difficult. All you can do is blog about it or post a comment about the same. You study in school about the various communication mediums and this follows a one – to – many model. Not a very friendly approach i’d say.
You cannot search for the content online. Just read the heading and assume what’s inside. That is like judging a book by its cover. Ahh, not quite advisable.
So, I guess this is the reason why a very small percentage of the world is following ‘podcasts’. India and Indian audience have always accepted newer means to communication, specially when it comes to the digital front.
Now I don’t wonder why, India did not welcome podcasting whole heartedly. You have a different view point? Please enlighten me on it. :)
