The rise of the podcasters

Steve Ford of Apple says there are enough MP3 players in New Zealand, such as the iPod, to offer an instant podcast audience. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Podcasting is coming - just ask your kids.

Named after Apple's popular digital music player the iPod, the practice has taken off overseas.

The now-simple process of creating an audio recording and uploading it to a server for others to play means anyone can become a DJ.

Apple iPods are not required to listen to podcasts - anyone with a computer or MP3 player with the correct software can get them.

While podcasting has yet to emerge as a force here, many believe it is only a matter of time.

It has already become evident in Australia. This year, a former Microsoft employee and a Sydney-based Singleton Ogilvy Interactive executive producer launched The Podcast Network in Australia, which features the "all Aussie" podcast G'day World.

Australia's largest radio broadcaster, Austereo Group, said it would begin podcasting clips from its leading networks, Today and Triple M.

Steve Ford, general manager of the Apple division of Renaissance, New Zealand's sole Apple distributor, said there were already enough iPod users in the country to create an instant audience.

"Will we see podcasting as a new way of marketing? Without a doubt," he said.

A sharp drop in price and subsequent surge in demand has delivered that audience. A basic model of the iPod is now available for $179 and players from other manufacturers are similarly priced.

A survey by Pew Internet and American Life Project released last month found 29 per cent of United States adults who own MP3 players said they had downloaded podcast programmes from the internet -which would translate into more than six million listeners.

Local radio executives have yet to put any plans in place for podcasting.

Jana Rangooni, group programme director for RadioWorks, said the progress of podcasting elsewhere was likely driven by the availability of high-speed broadband internet access, where New Zealand lagged. In 10 years' time when high-speed web access was widespread, it could be a different story.

"But at the moment technology is such that your iPod is your iPod and your radio is your radio."

TRN engineering director Norm Collison said a lot of new technologies "narrowcasted" to a small audience rather than "broadcasted".

"They're popular with the youth but we're all competing with the time youth spend on media, on TV and radio already."

Radio was highly regarded for its immediacy, whereas podcasting was by its nature delayed, he said.

Both Rangooni and Collison saw the new media as an opportunity.

"Radio stations are content providers and the means by which we provide that will become more numerous," Rangooni said.

Collison agreed: "Our issue, if there is an issue, is whether they are going to take ads with them."

They just might. Paul Maher, chief executive of media buyer Starcom, said the biggest problem for traditional media owners was the diminishing size of their audience.

"The old model of simply placing advertising in mass media is becoming less relevant to the consumer."

Maher said podcasting could work well because consumers were passionate about their iPods.

"If you can tap into that passion and use it to communicate in a powerful way, that's clearly of significant value to advertisers."

Podcasts delivered smaller numbers, but a stronger bond between brand and consumer, he said.

"At one point, no one was concerned about Sky; no one was worried about suburban newspapers. People aren't concerned about them until they start to impact on their business-probably wrongly."