UK podcast listening unveiled

• The Podcast Survey 2023 has been released by Ofcom, the UK media regulator. Ofcom just publishes the raw tables of data; but Adam Bowie has produced charts and helped us understand the numbers. It suggests that the number of Brits listening to podcasts hasn’t changed in the last twelve months.

  • Spotify is the most popular platform in the country (by reach), with BBC Sounds, YouTube, and then Apple Podcasts also in the top platforms.

• The UK Managing Director of YouTube, Alison Lomax is to speak at The Podcast Show in London. “I look forward to discussing our plans to make it even easier for creators and artists to showcase their podcasts on YouTube”, she’s quoted as saying.

  • Discount code PODNEWS will get you discounted tickets.

• Hindenburg PRO v2 goes on general release tomorrow. Pricing has been confirmed as from $8.25/month or a one-off price of $399, reduced to $299 for those upgrading from PRO v1. Perpetual licenses need a monthly subscription for transcripts, however.

• Fiction podcast app Apollo has unveiled a redesign and a paid subscription. 70% of all revenue will be shared by podcast creators.

• Wondery has just announced a six-episode show The Bird: Elon vs Twitter. The show will tell 'the wild story of when the world’s richest man took charge of the world’s “digital public square.”' - it’s available now on Wondery+ and everywhere else next week.

Tips and tricks

• Got Hindenburg? The latest version of Hindenburg PRO 2 (build 2522) now exports SRT files with speaker names to the Podcasting 2.0 standard. Right-click somewhere on the 'manuscript’ and choose “export”.
  • Here’s what the resulting transcript looks like on Buzzsprout

The Tech Stuff - with The Podcast Standards Project

• The podcast:valueTimeSplit tag has been proposed by Alex Gates. The specification allows time-based changes in value4value splits - so maybe you could add someone as a split while you play their music, as one example - or if they’re being interviewed as part of a bigger show.
• A chat room for the Podcasting 2.0 podcast was demonstrated last week. It uses Nostr identities, but doesn’t post the messages to Nostr itself.
  • (As an aside, you can follow Podnews’s Editor, James Cridland, on Nostr as james@crid.land )
• Podverse has added speaker names to transcripts on its web player. Podfans now also displays speaker names.
• Podfriend v2 will support the podfollow feature, a proposed way for creators to recommend other podcasts within their RSS feed.

Podcast News

Boldly Me is new from NOVA Entertainment, hosted by Chloé Hayden: “the perfect companion for anyone needing a confidence boost to fully embrace their most authentic self.”

Long-time pet lover and animal advocate, Stephanie Goodman, has launched The Furbabies Podcast to help dog and cat owners help their four-legged family members live longer and healthier lives. The show helps answer questions about health, wellness, rescue and other topics when it comes to our pets.

Launching today from Project Brazen and PRX, Night of Show tells never-before-heard stories about the best-known names in music including Prince, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, and more. Episode four tells the story of Kenny G calling in a favor from Jackie Chan; Prince is in the first episode, released today.

Founder Forward is new from one of the world’s largest venture firms. The podcast explores the company-building journey with commentary and useful insights from entrepreneurs and investors at every stage of growth. Each episode weaves in a featured conversation between an NEA investor and a founder they support. It’s produced by FRQNCY Media.