Talking Voices Partners with You and Eye Films
Talking Voices is pleased to have established new partnerships and connections in 2009. The first of these to be announced is You and Eye Films, which has been set up by documentary film maker Rani Khanna.
London-based French/Indian Rani directed MUSIC BY…GABRIEL YARED, an intimate 52 minute portrait of the Oscar-winning film composer’s collaboration with Anthony Minghella, made for French TV, released on DVD by Digital Classics, rated 5 stars and chosen as DVD Choice on BBC Music Magazine (Nov 2007).
Rani has set up YOU & EYE FILMS LTD to continue producing and directing documentaries, and to collaborate on co-productions and podcasts. She is fluent in French, speaks Italian and also teaches video and documentary film production at various colleges and universities in London.
Contact us to commission a podcast from You and Eye Films.
Blipathon – 24 Hours of Social Radio for the Children of Gaza
Brian Greene from TalkingVoices.ie leads hundreds of online DJs in Blipathon, a 24 hour fund-raiser for the children of Gaza.
NHS Alcohol Units Awareness Campaign
Small Pictures completed this short video for Forsters agency which was delivered as a downloadable video podcast, streaming flash and DVD, for NHS Southampton Alcohol Units Awareness Week.
At LeWeb, Paris
Talking Voices Embraces Video
Talking Voices is expanding its operations in video podcasting by partnering with Small Pictures.
Small Pictures, run by Talking Voices founder Dean Whitbread, has this month has achieved spectacular success of over 1m views in three weeks with John Cleese on Sarah Palin (below). Small Pictures has a channel on Vimeo.
Ofcom Seeks Views On AVMS Directive
The Government’s proposals for implementing the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in the UK have just been published.
The consultation focuses on three specific issues which are expected to require legislation. These are ‘co-regulating’ video-on-demand services; product placement; and, regulating satellite TV channels from outside the EU which uplink from the UK.
This EU Directive is aimed at On-Demand Audio-Visual Media Services – and so it is very likely to impact upon video and audio podcasting. It is important that the UKPA members are not negatively impacted.
ADM Releases First Podcasting Standard
Washington, DC - July 28, 2008 — The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), established to focus on best practices for monetizing consumer-downloaded content, has announced the release of its first ad unit standards and audience measurement guidelines for industry compliance. The Download Measurement Guidelines and Advertising Unit Standards are available now at http://www.downloadablemedia.org.
The first of its kind, the ADM audience measurement guidelines reflect a defined approach to assist advertisers and sponsors of audio and video podcasts, distributed digital content including web and mobile downloads, with criteria to measure listener/viewer numbers. The ad unit standards are the first in a series of formats that content producers can offer to monetize their shows so that buyers can run the same creative across many individual shows and various networks. Having ad standards in downloadable media allows media campaigns to scale across hundreds of thousands of offerings.
“In The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008 study derived from the Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study – podcast consumers are extremely attractive advertising targets and the industry is seeing a significant surge in listeners who knowingly select a program (rather than passively consuming whatever is available via traditional media), downloading it and potentially moving it to a portable device. This enhanced level of engagement with the programs and hosts of the shows they select may translate to an increased credibility and level of trust for the show’s sponsors and advertisers.
The ratified guidelines have been accepted by the ADM Ad Council, a special fourteen-member interactive advertising agency liaison group, which acts as a sounding board for the ADM committees. The Ad Council group insures the ADM standards and guidelines dovetail with prevailing digital advertising best practices.
The Advertising Unit Standards include three kinds of formats – Insertions, Content Participation and Collateral. The units outlined in the document are the most common set of existing formats in use today by sponsors and content producers. The ADM has plans to innovate new formats in the future, but this initial version of the Standards serves to organize the common set to make it most available to buyers industry wide.
INSERTIONS
Definition: A separate ad file that is attached, inserted, or edited into an audio or video podcast.
Time: Up to :10, :15, 30 or :60 seconds
Location: Pre-roll; mid-roll; post-roll
CONTENT PARTICIPATION
Definition: When an advertiser’s message is included as part of the audio or video podcast content.
Examples:
1. Underwritten Sponsorship
2. Scripted Live Read
3. Talking Points
4. Host Endorsements
5. Product Placement / Product Discussion
6. Sponsored Interstitials
7. Special Episodes
8. Advertorials / Interviews
9. Infomercials
COLLATERALS
Definition: All the other real estate that a podcaster has that may be included as part of an advertising or sponsorship package, or as separate items a lá carte.
Examples:
1. Show notes on podcast website
2. ID3 tags in podcast episode file
3. Album Art Cards
4. Link and banner in enhanced audio podcasts
5. Overlays, underlays in video podcasts
6. Web banners, buttons, text links, hyperlinks (using IAB standards)
7. Email sponsorships
8. Press Releases
9. Product sales (CDs, DVDs, merchandise)
10. Signage/Outdoor (for retail)
11. Brochures, flyers
Chair for the Advertising Standards Committee and National Podcasting System founder and CEO Brian McMahon stated: “The ratified standards encapsulate a long history of advertisement units that are applicable in the downloadable arena. This provides publishers, advertisers and agencies with a solid footing and shared vocabulary for value and monetization opportunity.”
Because there are two ways a content creator can get access to audience data, the ADM now recognizes two types of effective measurement techniques, Native Server Measurement or Third Party Measurement. Both are approved by the ADM in providing accurate data when complying with the standards parameters:
Native Server Measurement (NSM)
The Native Server is the actual end point where the media is hosted. Native Server Measurement refers to the log files derived from the Native Server. It may include the amount of data that was transferred in each log entry, and therefore may provide information to derive more than simple download statistics.
Third Party Measurement (TPM)
A Third Party server is the intermediary between the Native Server and another Third Party Server. Third Party Measurement refers to the files measuring the initial download requests as received by a third party server to be delivered to the requester. Because the Third Party server is a constant, it may uniformly measure download statistics across multiple hosting services.
Download Measurement Committee head, Angelo Mandato, CIO of Raw Voice, Inc. added: “The ADM has worked closely with the very organizations that will embrace these measurements ensuring they can be easily applied and replicated across the industry by any creator or aggregator of downloadable media. It is our goal to be the cornerstone of measurement practices and the just released standards represent only the beginning of the available opportunity for both the buyer and seller.”
The Association for Downloadable Media is committed to advancing its charter: creating a landscape favorable to the commercialization of portable media. The ADM’s focus includes revenue generation from advertising and sponsorships of audio and video podcasts, (aka vidcasts, or vlogs), and other digital content distributed via RSS, ATOM, peer-to-peer, mobile devices, downloads from Web sites and other platforms to come.
About the ADM
The Association for Downloadable Media is focused on providing standards for advertising and audience measurement for episodic and downloadable media. The organization’s constituents include individual podcasters, media companies, publishers, syndication companies and distributors offering downloadable media, advertising agencies, marketers, technology suppliers, hardware and software manufacturers of portable media products and services, market research firms and audience and advertising effectiveness measurement companies. Through our volunteer membership, we provide leadership in and organization of advertising and audience measurement standards, research, education and advocacy to all those involved in portable media (Podcasts/ATOM/RSS media enclosures) across the Internet, iPods, MP3 players, mobile devices, P2P and other upcoming platforms.
Copyright © 2008 Association for Downloadable Media.
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Washington, DC 20003-4303
Podcasts Boost Radio Audiences, Says UK Industry Researcher
All of the RAJAR-commissioned data reported in this Guardian article is pretty good news for the humble podcast, with one exception: “Although podcasts were popular with listeners, media organisations have found difficulty turning them into significant moneyspinners”.
Agreed – media organisations, with top-down attitudes and old-media thinking continue to invest in podcasting as part of their new media landgrab, without adopting new models for monetization, and without investing time and energy into the relationships that will make podcasting work outside its place as an adjunct to their existing broadcast or publishing output.
Meanwhile, many small to medium-sized businesses and institutions, unhampered by large overheads and “old media” attitudes, continue to find enterprising ways to employ podcasting and to generate revenue from podcasting, using both B2B and B2C models, dosed liberally with the old fashioned “let’s try things out and see what works” methodology.
“According to the survey, 6 million people in the UK have now downloaded a podcast – up from 4.3 million in November 2007. And 3.7 million now say they listen to a podcast each week, up from 1.87 million in last year’s survey.
The average podcast user subscribes to 3.6 podcasts and spends just over an hour a week listening to them. Comedy and music continue to be the two favourite genres.
iTunes remains the preferred software for almost three-quarters of users who subscribe to podcasts, while a fifth simply download directly from the website via their browser.
According to the survey, 79% of people listen to podcasts on their home computer and 66% listen via a portable audio/mp3 player.
Podcasting appears to also have a marginally positive effect on live radio listening. Almost 15% said they listened to more live radio since they began downloading podcasts.
While 10% stated they listened to less live radio after starting to download podcasts, 39% said they were now listening to radio programmes they did not listen to previously.” (Guardian)
Download the research PDF here.
BECTU at BAFTA
Dean Whitbread from Talking Voices spoke today as part of the Digital Futures panel for BECTU’s Freelancers’ Fair.
Here’s an embedded player which uses content from Phreadz (a threaded multi-media social network currently in closed beta) and Qik (live mobile streaming) which contains the presentation from two different angles – plus replies to the thread as they come in on video.
Many thanks to Philip from Viacom for his impromptu camera work…
As promised to the attendees, here are the links to the websites mentioned:
Our Man Inside – Tony Benn interview
Blogger Advocacy – Creative Choices
Skitch – use of Seesmic by Christian Payne
John Cleese’s Spanking New Headcast
Rise and Shine – interactive show by Daily Song Ltd.
Creative Choices Campaign Launches
We’re very pleased that our carefully assembled team of “creative ambassadors” has now started working as advocates for an excellent new UK government initiative supporting our creative industries – Creative Choices.
Christian Payne has produced some excellent responses using multiple channels including Seesmic, Qik, Twitter and Skitch – this last of which was a really clever secondary use of video blogging, which sparked another productive thread in the conversation. What is really impressive is that Christian’s considered approach has generated instant sign ups from leading UK creatives, a tangible early result.
