Talking Voices Ireland

Talking Voices complete webcast for RaboDirect.ie inside the ‘boot camp for money’ we filmed June 3rd 2008.

According to a new UK Podcast survey [PDF] reported in the Guardian Podcast listening is up (above 9 million listeners) and helping radio reach its targets. 44% of podcasts are played at night. This is in line with numbers listening to The Archers on podcast/demand/online time shifted exceeding 1Million & means the over all figs are UP. said David Hendy speaking about BBC Radio 4 to RTE’s Andy O’Mahony last Saturday/Tuesday night on the Dialogue programme. And as if to prove a point here is that show on demand. Dialogue RTE Radio1 24/06/2008 (requires realplayer) listen and boost its audience reach!

Guardian Article: Radio listening via the internet is growing in the UK, with more than 14 million people in the country listening to output on the web every week and more than 9 million downloading podcasts on a weekly basis, according to a new survey published today.

Commissioned by the industry’s audience research body Rajar, the Ipsos Mori survey conducted in April and May this year found that more than 14.5 million people have listened to the radio online and 9.4 million listen every week - either through live streaming or “listen again” services.

This means that internet listening was up by 2.5 million people on the previous survey, which was conducted in October and November 2007. In the 2007 survey, listen again use was 8.1 million in any given week, 1.3 million fewer than the latest survey’s figure.

In the latest research, Ipsos Mori found that podcast listening occured throughout the day, with an evening peak when 44% of podcast users click on the play button. A total of 83% of podcast users now listen to content that is more than a week old.

The survey also reveals that three-quarters of those using internet listen again services said this had no impact on the amount of live radio they consume.

And almost half said they are now listening to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously. The average user of listen again services listens to 1.8 programmes each week in this way.

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.

Although podcasts were popular with listeners, media organisations have found difficulty turning them into significant moneyspinners.

However, 53% of respondents to the latest Rajar survey said they would be interested in downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free.

Only 31% responded positively to the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for.

The survey was conducted online and sampled 863 people.

“Now in its second instalment, this survey gives a unique insight into the behaviour of the online/offline audio community and the impact of new audio delivery formats on traditional live radio listening,” said the Rajar research manager, Christel Lacaze.

“It also provides perspective on the relative impact of each of these activities.”

Marie Boran in Silicon Republic Reports

A selection of audio and video lectures and talks from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) today became available on Apple’s educational podcast service, iTunes U, making it the first Irish university to join.
The iTunes U store is a free educational research tool that works in association with educational institutes around the world. Today marked the arrival of institutes from Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

TCD’s iTunes U site contains a selection of audio and video podcasts, including a public lecture from Nobel prize-winner and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Dr James Watson, as well as courses on the disciplines of immunology, education and computer programming.

As TCD provost, Dr John Hegarty, pointed out, Trinity College is now the oldest established university in iTunes U, having been founded in 1592.

Hegarty said: “Through pioneering the use of this new technology, Trinity College is reaching out to a variety of audiences – potential and current students, staff, alumni and the general public, in fact anyone with a love of learning, which demonstrates our social and educational outreach mission.”

Podcasting is the next growth area in higher-level education, according to John Murphy, acting director of TCD Information Systems Services: “The iTunes U interface provides control, flexibly, accessibility and management of the college’s online content in a manner not previously available.”

TCD can be found on iTunes U at http://itunes.tcd.ie.

Talking Voices has just completed the recording and post production of the Irish Internet Association Internet Congress 2008 podcast over 14 episodes. This is the third year in a row that we have been engaged to create the podcasting of the all day national conference and breakout sessions.

In previous years the podcast was sponsored by Microsoft, this year Rabo Direct came in with a sponsorship package that sees this annual fixture on the internet calendar get recorded for attendees & non attendees alike.

Commenting on the conference podcast Brian Greene of Talking voices said “We listen to it & record it, so you can enjoy it in the future. Many conference attendees from all over the country now know that the entire conference and breakout sessions are recorded so they can be assured not to miss anything, while been able to spend valuable conference time networking!”

The conference cast is available on the IIA website or via xml subscription & in iTunes.

quick round up of news from the Talking Voices team in Ireland,

[update] I forgot to mention we are proud to be associated with downloadmusic.ie USB album thingie, where Brian is on the  judging panel.

Talking Voices were recently re commissioned to record another 10 podcast episodes for RaboDirect.ie a part of the Rabo Bank group. The 10 are in post production and the first 2 have been published. download here

Our breakfast briefing series of podcasts for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) enters its 2nd year now and hot on the heals of the January property forecast last Friday at the Hilton Hotel Dublin we recorded and published the second briefing of 2008 titled Lending - what the Banks look for (speakers from AIB) check the podcasts out at http://www.icai.ie

Brian has been busy working along side the Emigrant Advice Network and Irish Overseas Broadcasting who together are highlighting the plight of medium wave radio audiences who face a cessation of service from RTE Radio 1 on 567kHz on March 24th . Next week we meet with the department of communication in an attempt to highlight the concerns of listerners and the business & technical reasons why this is a very bad move. more details from http://www.ean.ie/category/radio

Finally a critique of Digital Terrestrial Television and the potential Free To Air components with in it, DTT TV is about to be rolled out in Ireland, this is a good time to ponder, will Ireland repeat the mistakes of ONdigital or embrace the openness of FreeView. http://www.rte2fta.com/

with new logo & after a lenghty hiatus Leviathan podcast is back. same old url shinny new MP3s oh and new url too. recorded at Crawdaddy Dublin Nov 2nd this episode features all the usual suspects and Naomi Klien interviewed by host David McWilliams.

hear part one here

…followed by a panel discussion on “Romantic Ireland’s Dead and Gone” with Green Party Senator, Deirdre de Burca ; Sinn Fein Councillor, Killian Forde ; Sunday Independent columnist Carol Hunt; Sunday Times columnist and blogger Sarah Carey , Irish Times Columnist John Waters and featuring Blogger TwentyMajor, as well as musical satire from Paddy Cullivan/ Clint Velour and a new cartoon from Langerland.com.

hear part two here 
promoter: Naoise Nunn :: recorded on location at Crawdaddy Dublin :: podcast production Talking Voices

Good luck to Rabo Direct who are short listed for a Netvisionary Award on Thursday night at the Irish Internet Association annual awards ceremony. Rabo are up for 3 awards but we are most proud that they are short listed for the podcasting award which we won last year (the first time there was a podcast category in the awards was 2006). 

Talkingvoices.ie were commissioned to produce all the Rabo Direct podcasts to date. Rabo Direct are delighted with the take up by clients and subscriptions are growing from strength to strength.

Talkingvoices specialise in owner produced content where organisations can capitalise on the access possibilities of new media. for more details of our podcast production service email info at talkingvoices.ie

Article for e|thursday in the Irish Independent by Marie Boran

(full article available online here)

Brian Greene, podcasting, blogging and social media consultant with Talking Voices.com, says podcasting, or the recording and on-demand broadcasting of audio, is not just for those who can’t make it on the day.
“Now people are going to conferences to meet and greet other people and to network, not necessarily to attend the speeches.

“They listen to the podcasts on the journey home because there’s a more valuable event going on at a conference: in the corridors and breakout rooms.”

Podcasting for events isn’t just a matter of hitting the record button and waiting. It is an integral part of building the whole conference feel. “These are becoming the tools of the conference trade, which will become the norm in the future.”

As well as capturing all the speeches, Greene interviews speakers and sponsors afterwards and carries out audience vox pops to capture the atmosphere of the event.

Even pre-event build-up can be generated on an organisation’s website, hosting podcast interviews with participants in the run-up to the big day in what Greene calls a “trailer-cum-teaser”.

“Podcasting has extended the reach of the conference. Conferences are happening before they happen. They can live on forever because of the recording.

“While the physical conference remains the same, things are changing on the periphery and podcasting has changed it on all fronts.”

Because the physical conference remains unchanged, it requires the same invitations, bookings, payments and invoicing requirements that can be a nightmare for the event organiser.

first posted on Talking Voices blog

The TalkingVoices.com produced podcast for Rabobank [web] has entered at number one in the Irish iTunes Business chart. First recorded in February 2007, a second series was commissioned and recorded in May 2007, the episodes of which will be released between July and December.

“It has been an interesting first venture into podcasting for the bank and I’m sure it’s a channel we will continue to grow” commented Martin O’Leary of Rabobank.

In Ireland Talking Voices has also recently completed podcasts for Enterprise Ireland eBusiness Unit [iTunes : Web] and the Irish Internet Associations annual conference.

There are now more podcasts than there are radio stations worldwide, matching a prediction made on an Irish blog site last year.

In November of last year on his blog Podcasting News Ireland, Brian Greene forecast that, with new podcasts growing by more than 800 per week, they would outnumber radio stations by St Patrick’s Day 2006. He said that although podcasts are strictly speaking shows rather than stations, they are independently distributed and subscribed so the comparison holds true to an extent.

Podcasts cover a range of areas; the most popular is science, followed by religion, audio blogs, technology and talk radio. Other common categories include news, arts, movies and TV, sport, health, travel and food.

Apple’s iTunes website lists in excess of 38,000 podcasts in a variety of categories. Greene pointed out that even though some podcasts fit into more than one category, the figure cited by Apple excludes music podcasts. The figure of 36,000 radio stations derives from Fi Glover’s book on the radio industry I Am an Oil Tanker.

“The deal isn’t that I predicted this or I was right; it’s that there’s now more choice for the consumer,” Greene told siliconrepublic.com. He emphasised that this development doesn’t make podcasting bigger than radio as the latter medium has been around for more than a hundred years whereas the former is barely two years old.

“They’re not equal in size or money or importance but it’s about choice,” Greene added, suggesting that the alternative listening choice now available to the public via podcasting would mean the end for what he calls “wallpaper radio”. Unlike many mainstream radio stations which take their playlists from a narrow selection of music formats, podcasts are designed to appeal to niche audiences.

Greene, whose company Doop.ie consults and makes podcasts for Irish companies such as Irish Emigrant News and the Dublin rock radio station Phantom FM, will be speaking about the subject at an Irish Internet Association seminar, titled Commercial Applications of New Internet Channels on 12 April in Dublin. More details are available at www.iia.ie.

By Gordon Smith Silicon Republic 20.03.2006