PSP has its June 28th

April 25th 2006 and Sony gives the play station portable what apple gave iTunes on June 28th 2005, "PODCAST SUPPORT" from within. When iTunes got podcasts it gave podcasting a jolt. 15 million plus PSPs are out there, waiting to hear your podcast! after they upgrade that is. So that just leaves one 'ceist beag' where is 'auntie thrust' microsoft in the podcast game? more

Sound education in your pocket

I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural meeting for 'Sound education in your pocket' this morning. what is it? well I have found over the last 8 years if Mr Bernie Goldbach calls you up, you wont have time to work out what it is before you find yourself right there in the middle of it. I used to think it important to understand what I was getting myself involved in, well not with the other other BG or BFG to be exact. BTW Goldbach emailed me (i think spring 2001) to tell me about the "enclosure tag" and it was coming to RSS! so I checked it out......

From Bernie's blog: SEVERAL IRISH PODCASTERS got together today in The Clarence Hotel and discussed "sound education in your pocket". That's a conference topic at EdTech 2006 set for IT Sligo on 25-26 May. The Dublin coffee chat promises to evolve into a vidcast that will play on iTunes before the May conference which means the presentation will be generating international comments and qujesrions as its Irish audience watches it for the first time in Sligo.

This collaborative presentation explains the pedagogical, social, and technological merits of podcasting in formal education in Ireland. The contributions will shape this presentation into a broad coverage of the current state of "Podcasting in Ireland" as well as an introduction to podcasting for listeners. more >

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Phantom FM – 10,000 podcasts downloaded!

Phantom FM, the Dublin based, alternative rock station has announced that over 10,000 episodes have been now been downloaded from the stations podcasting service. The station began podcasting in December of last year and is unique as a radio station in that it produces programming only available as podcasts. When the station launches on the Dublin airwaves in August of this year, it will continue to podcast offering a selection of previously broadcast programmes and original material for the medium.

Their popular I-Spot podcast is a 15-minute weekly feature on an up and coming Irish band. Artists featured to date have included Whipping Boy, Vesta Varro, The Flays, Roesy and Berkley. “We’re pretty delighted with the reaction to I-Spot” said Peter Vamos, Phantom’s programme director and I-Spot presenter, “One of the neat things about the I-Spot podcast is that each band promotes it through their own web sites and mailing lists so we build up new subscribers virally”. Each subscriber can access the back catalogue of podcasts and automatically receives future Phantom podcasts.

The experience to date has provided some useful insights into the digital media habits of the Phantom FM audience. “iTunes continues to be the most popular podcatching application” says Brian Daly, Phantom FM’s marketing manager, “However, our podcasts are in the MP3 format so we are not beholden to any brand of podcatcher or digital music player”. Daly points out that almost 30% of Phantom podcasts are downloaded directly from the stations web site on a “once off” basis independently of any the popular podcatching applications. He concurs with industry research that only 20% of podcasts actually end up on a digital music player such as an iPod or Zen. “We’ve built up a core subscriber base and the majority of them are listening to the podcasts on their personal computer and not while on the move” adds Daly.

Phantom FM does not regard the growth of digital music players as a threat to the radio medium, despite the fact the fact that their research shows that few users have a music player equipped with a FM radio. The station views podcasting and digital media in general as an extension of the radio brand into a new arena. Phantom FM views the provision of a ‘radio on demand’ service as an additional promotional opportunity. Each podcast is audio branded top and tail with the station ID and web address. Asked about the advertising potential of podcasting, Daly stated that “Podcast audiences are small but tend to be loyal. We don’t think that they’ll relish spot advertising being inserted but there is a role for tasteful sponsorship and co-branding of podcasts”. The station has been in discussion with potential sponsors about producing co-branded podcasts that would enhance an on-air sponsorship campaign.

Radio Flirting with Irish Podcast

Following yesterdays news that 'Lá' the Irish language newspaper was first in its industry in Ireland to start podcasting [iTunes feed] , comes news that the cross over from radio to podcasting can be two way.

An tImeall, the daily podcast in the Irish language, today becomes the first independent Irish podcast to cross-over to traditional radio, as it begins a syndicated run on Galway city's college community station, Flirt FM. The 15 minute show will air each weekday at 5:30pm

Podcasts are growing in popularity because they offer the audience greater choice of programming as well as increased convenience in terms of how, when and where they choose to listen or view. Podcasting also lowers the barrier to entry for content producers, allowing anyone to distribute their programming to a worldwide audience independently of tranmission networks and programme schedules.

Recent months have seen a flurry of activity among traditional broadcasters eager to join the podcasting parade, and many popular Irish radio programmes are now also available as podcasts. Until now however, no independent podcast had made the transition to the airwaves in Ireland.

An tImeall is published at imeall.blogspot.com. It was the first podcast in the Irish language, and one of the first in Ireland. It's mission is to serve the worldwide community of Irish speakers and to encourage the development of online networks to promote the language. Over 120 episodes have been produced since last July, and last month the site was honoured for it's use of Irish at the inaugural Irish Blog Awards.

Flirt FM is the community radio station for the student population of Galway city's two third level colleges. It was established in 1995. Flirt FM's new summer schedule starts today and further details can be found at flirtfm.org.

16% week on week growth of podcasts

"FeedBurner recently surpassed a major milestone of 44,000 podcast feeds under management, which, according to the CIA World Factbook, exceeds the total number of radio stations worldwide," notes Klau. (reported by podcastingnews.com)

this backs up the claim first made here by Brian Greene in March that global podcast numbers overtaking radio stations. Now excluding all the rest, Feedburner podcast feeds alone out number radio stations against the larger CIA figure of 44,000.

Once again I warn podcast does not equal a radio station but with so such format dilution its apples ipod versus radio orange.

Feedburner claim 20% month on month growth, while I am seeing 16% week on week growth at podnova.com where on Apr 12 2006 they were tracking 55,000+ podcasts and on Apr 19th 2006 they are tracking 64,000-

The podcasting revolution is on fire still.

915,000 irish MP3 players

siliconrepublic.com reports: The market for MP3 audio players grew by a massive 347pc in Ireland last year and one third of households in the country are estimated to have one, according to data from the consultancy Understanding & Solutions.

There were 452,000 devices sold in Ireland last year, up from 99,000 in 2004. The category includes hard-disk-based players which have large capacity, such as the Creative Zen Vision:M, and machines that are based on flash memory technology. This category comprises slimmer devices with less storage space such as the iPod nano. more

Sligo IT - degree via podcasts

get a degree with out leaving home; no its not spam, its not even a root to being a Government's chief science adviser, get a REAL degree from sligo IT by using an iPod a Mobile phone or a memory stick. for a minimum non mandatory 2 days a year in Sligo, everything else can be learnt online.

more details http://www.itsligo.ie/online/

Wogan 2 podcast

[rss] [web]

The biggest radio station in the UK moves its largest listened to programme to podcasting.

from the Scotsman -
TERRY Wogan, the veteran Radio 2 broadcaster, is today set for digital stardom as the BBC launches the DJ's first podcast.

The venture could seem an unlikely one for a show whose fans style themselves TOGs, or Terry's Old Geezers and Gals.

But the "TOGcast" of Wogan's Radio 2 breakfast show - the most popular in Britain, with just under eight million listeners - appears assured of a place at the top of the digital download charts as increasing numbers of radio listeners choose to hear favourite shows on-demand via computer.