In this session...
Radio was wonderful while it lasted - but podcasting is doing to radio what streaming is doing to linear TV. When you have more than a million shows to choose from, nearly all of them for free and instantly accessible on your phone, why bother turning on the radio, with its limited content, prescribed playlists and old-fashioned formats? The data suggests audio-on-demand is unstoppable: Listening figures for many major BBC shows are down, podcast revenues are growing at a rate of 40 percent per year, most major media companies are investing heavily in on-demand audio and many of the biggest broadcasters are launching their own podcasts. Thanks for the memories, radio, but the future of audio is in podcasting.
That's what the naive, faddish podcast fantasists believe, at least. The truth is, radio is stronger than ever and the arrival of podcasting has only helped. The BBC, NPR, iHeartMedia and other major radio platforms have all embraced podcasts - because on-demand audio gives their talent room to grow and experiment and their sales teams a whole new category of inventory to sell. And then there's this: Podcasts can never deliver breaking news, they can't offer live sports commentary and they'll never create the sense of shared experience radio does. Podcasts won't kill the radio star; they'll just make her stronger.
Join the debate, produced by Intelligence Squared and Intelligence Squared Solutions, and have your say about the future of audio.
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