The weekly Podtrac ranking on podcast downloads records the top downloaded podcasts. Every week, the rankings show an interesting anomaly. One of the top downloaded podcasts is actually a long-running TV show on the NBC network.
It's Dateline. The newsmagazine has been on TV since 1992. And now it's a highly successful podcast since 2019. Dateline is only one example of how NBC is making an ambitious push into the podcast market, with an audio series on conspiracy theories, the British royalty, and the legacy of Title IX in scholastic athletics planned in the next few months.
Bonus episodes of two popular recent podcasts, “Southlake” and the Dateline spinoff “The Thing About Pam,” are also being released in early March.
NBC News was tied for 11th in Edison Research’s list of top podcast networks by reach, the only company that is known primarily for television news broadcasting, in the company’s top 18 podcast networks.
NBC News said the audience for its podcasts in 2021 grew by 19 percent over the year before.
“One of our biggest priorities continues to be generating original, distinctive reporting and pushing out across a variety of platforms,” said NBC News President Noah Oppenheim in a recent article.
“Podcasts are a new format for us to play in, but it’s rooted in the same fundamentals that drive all of our work,” Oppenheim continued.
NBC’s podcast unit began with two people in 2018 and now is staffed by more than a dozen people.
This adventurous foray into podcasting is an abrupt departure for a network known for its "safe" and "sanitized" programming. After all, Wednesday's prime-time schedule consists of three "Chicago" franchise shows and Thursday's schedule is "Law & Order' all night. It's 1960s TV programming in 1080p resolution.
So it's out of character for NBC when one of the
network’s most popular personalities, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow,
delivered the podcast Bag Man about former Vice President Spiro Agnew,
which is now being made into a movie. Maddow is currently on hiatus from her daily MSNBC show, in part to work on another podcast. Details have not been released on that current Maddow project.
NBC is also turning the story in The Thing About Pam into an entertainment series starring Renee Zellweger.
NBC Reporter Brandy Zadrozny is behind Truthers, the upcoming podcast on internet conspiracy theories, and U.S. Olympic sabre fencer Ibtijah Muhammad reports on the history of Title IX and the idea of equal sports opportunities for the sexes.
“Dateline NBC” reporter Keith Morrison is also working on a new podcast, while MSNBC’s Chris Hayes’ podcast, Why is This Happening, will have episodes on money, entertainment and friendship, NBC said.
NBC News President Noah Oppenheim has called podcasting a “nascent” business, without detailing what podcasting has meant for NBC News’ bottom line.
Fox has a considerable podcasting presence due to its Fox News division. So far, the ABC News Audio Network is largely recycled TV programming.
In the May 2021 podcast upfronts, Viacom CBS announced an aggressive slate of podcasts in partnership with iHeart Media and leveraging its numerous cable network franchises.
For example, Viacom CBS has introduced podcasts from its MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and CBS News brands. Predictably, podcast downloads are up 14 percent year over year.
Whenever an article announces an expansion into podcasting via an established podcast network or a legacy company like NBC, you always have to wonder about market saturation.
After all, each medium has an established consumption template for customers. Radio, either over-the-air or satellite, is still restricted to vehicular commutes, even though SiriusXM is toiling furiously to break through that consumption paradigm with its Kevin Hart TV commercials.
Broadcast and cable TV viewing is limited to leisure time for working people and available time for children, students, retired people, and others. Streaming music and TV piggybacks on the advantages of YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook where viewing is always just a swipe up away on a smartphone.
Podcasts, of course, enjoy that same advantage. But that strength is also podcasting's weakness. It's not like the smartphone is the sole province of podcasting. Instead, it must share customers with YouTube, social media, and web-enabled video and audio clips.
Moreover, several research studies have shown podcasting best enjoyed as a solo activity. That's a potential drawback. TV, by contrast, has enjoyed the sense of communal viewing since its inception in the 1940s when multiple families crowded around a 12-inch fuzzy TV screen.
It's a crowded expressway of content out there.
When we will reach podcast gridlock?
What happens when all the TV broadcast networks are "all in" on podcasting and are followed by the 300 cable channels?
Are you ready for the Dr. Pimple Popper podcast? Or is it already here?
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