The Future of Podcasting
With the increased hype around the podcasting landscape, it's easy to get excited about what's next.
In my book Let's Talk Podcasting: The Essential Guide to Doing it Right (available at the Toronto Public Library), I touch upon a few areas where I predict we'll see expansion. That includes…
- Branded podcasts: Content created by brands as a top-of-funnel marketing tactic, but slickly produced, which will have audiences deeply engaged
- Podcasts going to live audiences: This includes more conferences in both Canada and the United States, as well as live shows and interactive podcast events
- Podcast awards: We'll see the rise of the podcast celebrity and more opportunities for validation/praise in this space.
I was able to sit down with Arif Noorani (Executive Producer of CBC Podcasts) to talk about what the future of podcasting looks like for the CBC and how it will impact the podcasting landscape as a whole.
Q. Research is showing that what's lacking in the podcasting space are the voices of the really young and really old… I know there are many networks investing in podcasts for kids. Is that the same for CBC?
A. Yes. I think it taps into where the future is going. We already have Tai Asks Why but we also are going to do a series with CBC Kids called the Story Store and that will mainly be for kids that are 5-10 years old and for paren'ts to play the podcast as entertainment for kids. The podcast (which is set to be released in May 2019) will have kids writing in and submitting a wish or request for a story. For instance, they'll request for a story about princesses and unicorns and then we'll get a writer to create that story. And the reason why we're doing this is because we're seeing smart speakers become more popular. With smart speakers, they're all voice enabled and you can image how people will use them. One of the big cohorts that will be [using them are] families. They'll call up their smart speaker and want something everyone can listen to. So we're making these podcasts because we think families will listen to them through their smart speakers.
Q. Let's talk about adaptations – we're seeing a lot of podcasts dictating other forms of media. Maybe you can give some examples?
A. Podcasting is a great place for new intellectual property. One of the recent adaptations is Homecoming, which is an audio fiction podcast from Gimlet and has just been turned into an Amazon original series with Julia Roberts. Gimlet also created Start Up, which was turned into a TV show called Alex Inc. aimed at the family market. It was a disaster but it was one of the first adaptions of that kind. CBC is also in talks with four of our series to adapt them. One of them being Personal Best, which is a show that takes people who have tiny problems and turns them into grand adventures.
Q. What do you foresee for CBC Podcasts as a whole?
A. Up until now, we've focused on highly produced narrative storytelling. This is where we're taking four to six months to produce 10 episodes and they're beautiful and people connect with them. But moving forward, we want an ongoing connection with the audience on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. So we've opened up our creation around that. We didn't go there initially because CBC had a radio service but what we've come to realize is that there's a whole other audience that doesn't even have a radio and yet wants the same sort of news and content in a slightly different way. This is why we created Front Burner, which is a daily news podcast. We also want to expand in the regular talk format; we're going to look to develop a weekly podcast in the arts/pop culture space.
To hear the full conversation that took place in front of a live audience at the Toronto Reference Library, check out the audio file below.
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