Even with all the initial hype and excitement about podcasts, the growth rate of the medium has slowed significantly according to Pew Internet & American Life Project. Nearly one in five (19%) adult internet users say they have downloaded a podcast. And that's only up from 12% two years ago. Talk about a slowing growth rate.
It gets worse though. Among those who said they downloaded podcasts, only 17% did so on a typical day. So not only is it slowing, but the usage patterns aren't what most people thought they would be.
Mark Ramsey has some thoughts about why this may be happening, one of them being that the good content is hard to find on iTunes. And I tend to agree.
Satellite Radio and Podcasting are somewhat similar, both are based on the aggregation of niches. They're is the epitome of Long Tail media, only that the slowing of podcasting growth seems far more dramatic than that of satellite radio. So is there a lesson to be learned? Satellite radio also has a mountain of content buried among hundreds of different channels. Finding the "good stuff" is admittedly pretty difficult.
I can almost guarantee that there's a correlation between satellite radio usage and subscriber retention. And in order to use satellite radio, people need to find the good programming.
So the question, what can be done to help improve the ability to find (and use) programming on both services? I personally think the touchscreen electronic programming guide seen at CES has the most potential, and I'm praying we see this at retail. It would get
But I'm curious, what are your thoughts? What do you think would help you find (and listen to) new programming on Sirius and XM? That is, aside from the annoying promos.
I can almost guarantee that there's a correlation between satellite radio usage and subscriber retention. And in order to use satellite radio, people need to find the good programming.
So the question, what can be done to help improve the ability to find (and use) programming on both services? I personally think the touchscreen electronic programming guide seen at CES has the most potential, and I'm praying we see this at retail. It would get
But I'm curious, what are your thoughts? What do you think would help you find (and listen to) new programming on Sirius and XM? That is, aside from the annoying promos.
From someone who has been podcasting since July of 2005 and continues to podcast (done alot of shows since then) I think it comes down to needing it to be automatic. I have yet to see any software (please if someone knows of any please correct me) that can be set to automatically download new podcasts in the middle of the night etc and have the MP3 player be synced so that everything is on it the next morning. Hate to say it but here in the US we are typically lazy and I know many people that almost never sync their ipod unless they buy new music.
I have yet to see any numbers for the show I work on decline might help that the show is popular and a niche market type of show. Satellite radio does not have this issue, you get in you car it works and you listen to whatever you want to listen to. People even pay to listen to certain types of podcasts etc (trust me they are out there and those that are, do make money off it) people have no problem paying for something but after awhile they want to be easy for them, they do not want to make an effort.
As with all the new ways of recording in the past it builds fast and then fades.
This is a giant problem for me. Now that I use the sirius vdoc to my cars built in head unit, its very hard to find what you want without using presets. but to make things worse, then there are only 12!! presets allowed for sat-radio in the new honda civics. So you have to go to a preset near the area you want and then browse...not the easiest thing tho.
I'm with KenC. People are lazy. Back in college I was all about the mp3. I used napster to build huge libraries of music. Then the hard drive crashed. the desire to spend that time searching for music waned and I turned back to my cD collection. Today, I like XM because it brings me the music I want without the endless search while also providing the surprise of a playlist I didn't generate and content I don't control.
I think XM needs to promote their online schedule and improve it. Possibly find a Tivo-esque system that makes suggestions for shows based on other shows you mark as favorites. This can be applied to a touchscreen based interface as well, since in the end, they are essentially the same interface.
Finally, and I've felt this way for a while about XM, get tighter control of the shows and schedule. Try to integrate guests, performances, etc into the schedule, and announce schedules early, so listeners can plan for the airing.
Of course, there's always my wet dream channel, XMXL, put it on 203 and have it be an adult version of XMX. There's tons of XL programming that can appeal to a wide market that people might not catch.
defenately a program guide on a sat rad reciever!
you can jump ahead and plan what you will listen to...and know who's dj'in at what times!
I think there are several things that could be done to promote programming, particularly online.
First, maybe allow us to set up the XM weekly program schedule as an RSS feed in my feedreader like what I do with Orbitcast and many other sites. Then, I can see when somethings been updated. Same with the channel lineups page; though, I find it easier to just hit this site to find out what new channels are coming because it's better organized than XM's own site.
Second, I'd like to see something like the deal Yahoo TV has with TiVo...Where I can select favorite shows, or random specials that interest me, via the online schedule and have it tell my XM radio to record that program for me...This would be particularly useful if I'm at work and the unit is at home or in the car. I'd even be okay with a system where I select the programs I want recorded and then sync the radio via my USB port when I get home, using software like iTunes or ActiveSync. As a blind person, this would be much more handy than using the method of relying on my wife to remember to set the recording times when I ask her to.
Also, allow us to customize the content we receive in the weekly emails from XM. For instance, I don't care about Oprah and Friends, The Power, XMPR, most of the pop channels, and the "urban" neighborhood...Allow me to set my emails to only send me info on rock, country, news/talk (yeah, I know XMPR and America Left would be mixed in there), sports, and special events. Filter out the genres I'm not interested in. Then, I might actually read the XM Signal more regularly.
This last one may not work since text messages only allow a limited amount of characters...But how about a text message letting us know what new channels are about to sign on and when.
Glad to see this issue addressed, finally! Satellite-Radio is great, but it is sad how little of its great programming is actually utilyzed by subscribers, by the simple fact of them not knowing where to tune-in, or even if such-and-so programming is being aired; One solution is to integrate programming with the computer, and that means deals with AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and the like! Subscribers to Sirius-XM Radio need to be able to readily see all the programming that exist on their radios, and with the prevelance of the computer, this would be a perfect way to integrate its line-up and even usability through web-Sat-Radio!
It would be nice to see Sirius-XM Radio pre-loaded as software on all new computers; This would go a long way toward making Sat-Rad omni-present, as that was it needs to be...so people know "what it's all about", the huge programming it offers and the enjoyment one can get from accessing favorite programming; There is so much work to do also in integrating Sirius' and XM's programming; I'm just a Sirius subscriber, but I would love to be able to tune-in to XM's content; When can I do this? How? I'd even pay a little more...
Finally, Mel really needs to get Web-friendly and computer-technology savvy; Sirius-XM Radio need to be so much more than "radio", it's not funny; Mel's an old-school radio buff...and sometimes I wonder if he's forward thinking enough to make Sat-Rad all it needs to be to flower, bloom, grow, and prosper; Somehow, some couple of years back, I think he screwed-up a possible Yahoo deal, back when they broadcast Howard Stern's arrival on Sirius; Seems to be we were set for some kind of partnership that never materialized! Maybe I'm wrong about the Yahoo association, but I'm not wrong about our needing a big, huge internet presence!
Good luck Sirius-XM Radio! You need it with your performance-to-date!
Hi Ryan, thanks for linking me.
Here's what bugs me about Satellite Radio: I NEVER know what's on.
Would it be that hard for Sirius to send me a customized schedule based on what I listen to - or want to listen to? Would that be so friggin' hard?!
They spend all this on-air time plugging content you are NOT interested in on other channels. Why not reach out directly to you for the content you ARE interested in?!
With the technology, and bigger screens, they could make a customized program guide similar to what you see on Dish Network or DirecTV with the 'guide' button.
Have a similar button on every radio, and whatever is on will display on the screen, navigate through it in the same way you would with an ipod touch, just by using the correct motions on the screen to go up and down, with a 'highlight' tab showing you what you might be interested in right this minute.
The problem with Satellite radio is it is light years behind other technologies, and doesn't look all that appealing when compared to an iPod touch, or a GPS. Once the technology improves, and the ways to get the service increases (not just having to buy new hardware, but simply downloading a program for the iPhone/iPod Touch (whatever happened to that anyway?))
Hey Mark,
That's literally exactly what I'm getting at. It's all about relevancy.
Getting the right programming to the right people. There's many ways to do it, and Sirius XM should be doing them all.
Hmmm... I smell a follow up post coming.
Podcasts don't have mass appeal, and require finesse with a computer, which is, in fact, quite rare, even today. Content isn't the issue, it's the method of delivery: TV and radio are at my fingertips, put podcasts at my fingertips (like on my radio or TV dial) and I'll listen to them. But if you did that, it'd be radio or TV!
Actually, "podcast" is not a sexy name for the technology. It needs a different name.
Here's a thought. Why couldn't a few Sirius/XM channels be set aside to broadcast podcasts?