Stumbling into podcasting

I’ve just finished filling a CBC survey on podcasting (link near the top right) as my country’s national broadcaster continues its cautious creep into podcasting.

The survey is part of CBC’s experiment with podcasting, which began near the start of this year, when podcasts from mainstream radio (or mainstream anything) were a rarity. Since then, the whole thing has exploded, without significant contribution from the CBC. To be fair, there was a long, disruptive strike during the summer, but that can’t be the whole story.

The reason most often cited by the CBC for not having more than its four current podcasts is the need to clear rights, which I find curious. NPR started the year (to the best of my memory) with only a handful of podcasts and now has 221, including a number that are mostly music and, presumably, needed to obtain rights as well. Either the regulatory situation in Canada is significantly more difficult, or there hasn’t been a significant push from CBC to get it done.

As I said, I filled in the survey and I hope it helps give the CBC a push. When they do come around, though, I’m afraid it’ll be too late for me. My podcast time card is full with pieces (primarily from the US and Australia) that I consider essential and I can’t add anything to it without shedding something, and I’d be loathe to do that.

Which is one of the things about a new media age, driven by the speed of ‘net evolution: Snooze. Lose.

TAGS: PODCASTING, CBC