BBC pulls podcasts from Google Assistant and Google Podcasts

Welcome to over 300 new subscribers over the last two weeks, including from companies like ABC Australia, Scripps, Gimlet Media, Stitcher, NPR, SRF, Buzzsprout, Acast, Turner, Megaphone, iHeartMedia, Spotify, Deezer, Westwood One, Radioplayer Germany, Entercom, ACE Radio, and the BBC.

• The BBC have blocked access to its podcasts by Google; and BBC podcasts are no longer available on Google Podcasts, Google Assistant, and Google search. Our special report notes that this may herald the beginning of the end of free and open podcasting.

• 68% of podcast listeners believe that the medium contributes to their intellectual growth. A new podcast app called NoteCast allows listeners to capture snippets of podcast conversations as digital notes, and lets them annotate them further. Developers EX-IQ are gold supporters of Podnews this month.

• Listening to podcasts on Amazon Alexa isn’t always a great experience. GearBrain writes up better ways to do it on your smart speaker.

• A new podcast app, Podcrypt, enables you to “automatically or manually donate to verified podcasts based strictly on time listened”: the service uses crypto currency. Podnews is here on this service, and our Ethereum ID is in our main description as requested.

Get the free Podnews newsletter for more like this

Get it free

• Stitcher have announced a raft of new podcasts. Joining the network is actor and comedian Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show”); husband and wife duo Devale and Khadeen Ellis; and Bill Nye, the science guy.

• TranscribeMeow is an iOS app to help podcasters transcribe their podcasts “right meow”. It’s here.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 11 2023

• Congratulations to Morris Wheeler, who is Hubbard Broadcasting’s new “Manager of Corporate Podcasting Strategy”.

  
  Aug 11 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Podcasts

17 Questions is a new weekly podcast that asks celebrities, authors and YouTubers 17 of the most weird and wonderful questions. It’s from a London-based youth-focused content marketing agency called The Big Shot. (The Big Shot / Acast)

Between 2 Mics is the podcast from SquadCast’s co-founders Zack and Rock. Every week, the podcast “explores challenges, opportunities, & new ideas that push the limits of what’s possible in podcasting”. (Simplecast)

Catholic Sports Radio - not always three words that go together, but long-time podcaster Bruce Wawrzyniak describes it as “content for ongoing reflection for daily life”. (Libsyn)

What would happen if a whole country went without power? Blackout has spent a few days high in the Apple Podcast Charts; it’s audio drama starring Rami Malek as a small-town New Hampshire radio DJ who fights to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide. (Endeavor Audio and QCode / Megaphone)

Russia, If You’re Listening, a podcast from the ABC in Australia, returns for season 2. “What did Robert Mueller discover about Trump and Russia: and what will it mean for the US President? With Mueller’s investigation complete, we follow the findings and the fallout, week by week.”

Thank you

• Thank you to Heartcast Media for becoming a Podnews supporter. Heartcast Media is a full service podcast production studio in the Washington Post building that focuses on turn key solutions for video podcasting. They edit everything real time, which means no wait for files. (And yes, they do conferences too).
• Thank you to Sendy, the mailing software we use, for a nice new update. This has allowed us to change the links in this newsletter to a nicer address.