Podcast Value Chain Update - 3Q 2005 The Podcast Content Bubble

Digital Podcast today released the first update to the Podcast Value Chain Report focused on the growth of podcast content. The project summary report The Podcast Value Chain Report: 3Q 2005 Update – The Podcast Content Bubble provides an overview of the extreme growth in podcast content during the third quarter of 2005.

The report examines the supply demand balance of different podcast content and major content trends that appear to be emerging.

Among the studies major findings:

* Podcast content continues to grow extremely fast
* Podcasts can no longer be characterized as “audio blogs”
* Mainstream TV and Radio have contributed significant content in the third quarter, without much thought about makes for a good podcast
* Supply and demand for podcasts by content type is still unbalanced and presents opportunities for new breakout podcasts, particularly in Adult and Audio Book categories
* Recent developments including Yahoo’s new podcast directory and the new video features in iTunes are accelerating the rate of content growth

Digital Podcast has catalogued a sample of over 2,900 podcasts as part of this project and user visits averaging 300,000 per month.

The genres of music, science & technology and comedy & humor have the highest share of publicly available podcasts representing over 38% of available podcasts.

Erotica, comedy and music are the most viewed categories representing a combined 27.3% share of category views.

Erotica continues to be the most viewed category with an 11.3% share of category visits, yet also continues to represent less than 1% of the available podcasts.

Books is also a category where interest continues to exceed demand. This category represented 5.9% of category visits, but only represents 1.7% of podcast listings.

Key content trends to watch in the fourth quarter:
* Videocasts, particularly in the erotic/Adult category.
* Podcasting as a business tool
* Educational podcasts
* Tivocasts – podcasts providing DVD-style commentary
* Community podcasting – community user contributed content

In this content bubble, traditional media and podcasters are scrambling to get podcasts out there, much the same as the bubble days of the web when everyone was rushing get a website up and running. Finding ways to make podcasts commercially successful, effective podcast search, the ways to use podcasting as tool to change business economics and many other major insights are still over the horizon.

The complete summary report is issued under creative commons license and can be found at http://www.digitalpodcast.com/podcastvaluechain.php

Digital Podcast, a leading podcast directory, designed and independently funded this study. The study's author, Alex Nesbitt, operates Digital Podcast and works as a business consultant helping corporations grow through improved strategic alignment.