Podcast Radio
Janet Parker, Radio National Online
Radio National Podcast Project
Presentation topics • Podcasting @ the ABC • Radio National – who are we • Podcasting @ Radio National • From radio program to podcast • The listener experience • Copyright and legal aspects • Where next
Radio National Podcast Project
In the beginning Podcasting is a recent development in the ABC. Not clear who was the first, probably either JJJ or dig internet radio in December 2004. • RSS or Really Simple Syndication has been used for several years to distribute text material via the web. • RSS is the underlying technology that that enables podcasting.
Radio National Podcast Project
In October 2004, a Background Briefing program “Music of the Blogospheres” by Stan Correy lit the fuse.
2005 has become the year of the podcast.
Radio National Podcast Project
ABC Podcasters
• Current Affairs (News, AM etc): 4 programs • Triple J: 6 programs • ABC Sport: 1 program • dig internet radio: occasional items • Radio Australia (overseas) 6 programs • Local Radio (702 etc): 12 programs • Radio National: 17 programs Big and getting bigger …
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcaster growth
350,000
Weekly MP3/Podcast Downloads Total ABC MP3 Downloads (per week)
300,000
No of Program Downloads
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
15 th Ma y 22 nd Ma y 29 th Ma y 5th Ju ne 12 th Ju ne 19 th Ju ne 26 th Ju ne 3rd Ju ly 10 th Ju ly
Week ending 23 October: Week Number of files Downloaded: 316,756 Data transferred: 2.585 TB
Au gu st 4th Se pte mb 11 er th Se pte mb 18 er th Se pte mb 25 er th Se pte mb e5 r 2n dO cto be r 9th Oc tob er 16 th Oc tob er 23 rd Oc tob er
17 th Ju ly 24 th Ju ly 31 st Ju ly
Au
Au
7th
th
Au
13 May
31 July
st gu gu 14
Oct 23
st
gu
21
28
th
st
st
Radio National Podcast Project
ABC Radio National Radio National covers 97% of Australia
Sydney frequency: 576 AM
• 68 different programs • Mostly talk not music • Specialist programs, eg science, law, health • Performance programs, eg poetry, book readings • Many programs are highly researched, prerecorded and edited. • High audio production values
Radio National Podcast Project
RN Ratings Weekly cumulative audience: about 1 million • October AC Nielsen survey: 685,000 across five capital cities (Syd, Mel, Bris, Adl, Perth) • In addition to the 5 capital cities there are 260 transmitters across the country, that aren’t surveyed. • Over 30 Radio National programs are rebroadcast to millions of listeners overseas by Radio Australia
Radio National Podcast Project
RN on the web
Radio National can be heard through ‘live streaming’ and 90% of programs are also available as ‘audio on demand’ (Real and Windows).
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcasting on RN On May 13th we started podcasting our first 8 programs • All in the Mind • Background Briefing • The Deep End • Late Night Live • Life Matters • The Night Air • The Science Show • Street Stories
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcasting on RN
Radio National at the forefront
We now podcast 17 programs every week and another 18 from early next year. Our podcasts are available less than 2 hours after broadcast. We incorporate metadata into the actual audio file. This will put us in a good position as podcasting further develops. More and more people are listening via podcast. Since April 24, we have gone from 0 to over 177,000 downloads per week.
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcasting on RN Podcasting and Radio National: a natural fit Content is highly segmented and clearly differentiated. Many short programs - less than 1 hour in length. Content requires very little treatment before being turned into a podcast. Many programs have specialist content for targeted audiences: arts, science and music. Dedicated listeners whose lifestyle may not match our broadcast schedule. RN Podcast List
Radio National Podcast Project
RN web stats Before and after podcasting
Week ending April 24 Oct 23 Number of requests 595,699 855,704 Number of bytes transferred 12.40 GB 2025 GB (1.978 TB)
Podcasting demand
Week ending Oct 23 Number of requests 177.378 Number of bytes transferred 1.965 TB
(NB: Audio on demand stable at about 40,000 accesses)
Radio National Podcast Project
From Radio to Podcast How a radio program becomes a podcast Program makers - write text for the web page that accompanies the story and enter it in the CMS (Wallace) Radio National Operations - delete copyright material (eg music) and encode the audio into MP3 format and send it to a server. Radio National Online – harvest the program audio and text material and output the new information into the podcast RSS feeds. New Media Systems/IT – manage the servers so that the podcast is available to the public.
Radio National Podcast Project
Audio file Encoding quality: • 44.1 khz and 64 kb/s mono – talk quality programs. • 44.1 khz and 128 kb/s stereo – music quality programs. File size: • 23 MB for one hour talk programs (eg Science Show) • 12 MB for half hour talk programs (eg Law Report) • 23 MB for half hour music programs (eg Night Air) Recent survey found 90% of RN listeners use broadband. Have to cope with different audio editing systems: Netia, Protools, WaveLab
Radio National Podcast Project
Text source Using what you’ve already got! ABC in-house content management system holds pre-existing data for the RSS feed. In advance of broadcast, program makers enter: • transmission date • title and description Problems: • RSS enclosure requires file size – eg 12075517. • Access by many people to site-critical FTP. • MP3 requires ID3 tags. • CMS has no connection to the audio file.
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcast Publisher Publisher solutions • Adds standard ID3 data to MP3 file • Calculates MP3 file size automatically • Computes the MP3’s length in minutes and seconds • Reverses date order on filename • Adds ‘artwork’ image to mp3 file • Adds transcript to Lyrics field of MP3 file • Translates text from UTF16 to UTF8 • Updates RSS feed if CMS xml output is updated • Processes and uploads replacement copies of the MP3
Radio National Podcast Project
Joining the systems
Radio National Online • Create indexes which outputs CMS data as xml • Monitor podcast updates: hourly,daily • Troubleshoot and help listeners
Radio National Podcast Project
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcast Publisher Pod Publisher log setting ID3
Radio National Podcast Project
The Listeners’ Perspective Radio National gives listeners two ways of getting MP3 files Manual Download - Right Click and Save target as. Podcast Feed – Click and get the feed address. Paste into podcast software, NOT BROWSER.
Radio National Podcast Project
Manual Downloads Positives: • Keep the audio as long as you want • Can transfer to your ipod/MP3 player Negatives: • Have to visit the website each time to get the audio • Have to remember the date of your last download • Have to remember if you downloaded the file onto your iPod/MP3player With podcasting the experience is even better.
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcast Feed Advantages Schedule when and how often you want the software to check for the most recent audio. Synchronise your MP3 player and your computer. Your player identifies programs you’ve already transferred and fills in the gaps. Automatic transfer when MP3 Player is connected. No need to visit the web page each time you want a new program.
Radio National Podcast Project
Podcast orange Clear identification of podcast material Podcast available Extensible Markup Language Really Simple Syndication
Radio National Podcast Project
Display of Podcast/RSS feed - iTunes
Radio National Podcast Project
ID3 file information displayed in – iTunes6
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ID3 File Summary
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ID3 data generated by Podcast publisher
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Audio transcript
Reading along on your iPod …
Radio National Podcast Project
MP3 Player display Naming conventions 16 character screen Short and consistent file names. Programs with multiple stories (LNL_yyyy-mm-dd) Single story programs (yyyy-mm-dd story title) Audio branding for different devices: Media Report
Radio National Podcast Project
Copyright in Podcast space Podcasts should not contain without clearance: • Full tracks of published music. • Theme music and stings – unless cleared with composer/performer/music publisher and record company • Live music performances where the artist AND record company have not signed a release • Readings from published books, poems • Actors reading extracts from books, plays etc. • Actuality from films
Radio National Podcast Project
Future glimpses
Convergence of platforms onto single device. Multi-purposing content for different output media. Increasing demand for content quality and variety. Highly targeted podcast advertising. The big question: How much will people pay for content, pay for convenience?
iTune phones with MP3 players
Radio National Podcast Project
Thank you for listening
Radio National Podcast Project