Plex adds podcasts

Plex, the media server, has added podcasts to its apps, including online; podcasts are available without subscription. TechCrunch is one of a number of outlets posting stories on it; your listening progress is synched across all your devices. Podnews is already listed; you can add yours within the desktop site. Podcasts are currently supported on Android, iOS, Roku, and desktop. We’ve added it to our big list of podcast directories.

Dan Misener from Pacific Content has noted that only 17% of all podcasters use secure RSS feeds. Apple recently announced that it will soon require secure RSS feeds for access to Podcast Analytics and for new submissions.

• Omny Studio tell us that they are planning to roll out an automated tool that will automatically help migrate any of their customers’ HTTP feeds to HTTPS. (They already support it, and it’s default for new podcasts). Libsyn support https links (just 'add the s’), but they’re also working on automatic migration.

Saycaster has released a public beta. The platform allows podcasters to pin links, tweets and comments to specific spots in their audio, and interact with specific moments in podcasts as you hear them. We put our podcast from yesterday in there.

Audioboom has been given another loan of £500,000 (US$665,000) by shareholder Nick Candy. There appears to be a deadline of 30 June for the company to achieve further fundraising. Data: “The platform receives over 60 million listens per month”. The shares continue to be suspended; their proposed takeover of Triton Digital failed earlier this month.

Canadian broadcaster Corus has hired Dila Velazquez to their new podcast team as Manager of Content/Audience Development. The release says: “Dila brings a wealth of experience in podcasting coming most recently from Entertainment One/Antica Productions where she was Producer/Director of New Media and managed all aspects of their growing podcast network. Dila will be working out of Corus Quay in Toronto and will report to Chris Duncombe, Director of Streaming and Podcasting.”

US broadcaster iHeartMedia is working on a scripted crime podcast called Lethal Lit. “As soon as I heard the script, it was like, 'Oh my god this is it,'” says Chris Petersen, Senior VP Podcasting. “Something the podcasting space needs help with is diverse content, especially diverse content for different groups of listeners. I don’t know that there’s a lot of content especially in the scripted space for the target [demo] on this podcast.”

New York lawyers Warshaw Burstein have launched a podcast - WB Perspectives. “We discovered that a majority of our clients were hungry for ways to better understand legal and business trends,” explains Warshaw Burstein Managing Partner Fred Cummings Jr. “Podcasts by the attorneys here on bite-sized topics seemed like the best way to reach our clients.”

Westwood One are excited about their wrestling podcast 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, noting that it has “rocketed to the top of the Apple Podcasts charts every week since it launched in late April”.

WNYC Studios launches American Fiasco, a twelve episode podcast series chronicling the story behind the US soccer team’s meltdown at the 1998 World Cup. The press release describes it as “a universal, human story that is part underdog, part Icarus, part Rocky meets Apocalypse Now”. (There won’t be a meltdown this year: they didn’t even qualify.)

• WNYC Studios also plan two more new podcasts in the next few months.

The Thing About Cancer, from the Cancer Council of NSW Australia, returns for its second season. Data: season one has achieved over 11,800 listens since it was launched in July 2017.