Ricky Gervais wants your money
bit-tech.net | Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for
The Ricky Gervais Show is to become the first paid-for Podcast.
The show features British comedy personalities Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Their irreverant brand of monkey-based comedy has seen the weekly half-hour podcast storm to the top of the iTunes charts and stay there.
The first run of 12 episodes was sponsored by UK newspaper the Guardian and were free to download via iTunes. Following on from the success of the show, the second run of episodes will be hosted on Audible.com and will be accessible only to those who’ve paid a subscription fee. […]
An Audible subscription to the show will cost $7 a month in the US and 4.50 (pounds) a month in the UK. For the money, you’ll get four half hour shows.
The show is popular enough that this will be a worthy experiment. The thing’s getting something like 400,000 downloads an episode, so they have a good chance at monetizing it.
This isn’t a boon to all podcasters, though. This is the kind of model that’s only going to work for the most popular of all podcasts.
I’ve only listened to the first show of the Gervais podcast. It was cute, but I’m not a devotee of it just yet. I’ve downloaded them all so far, though, just in case. . .
February 21st, 2006 at 9:29 am
I thought the early episodes were quite funny, but the later eps less so. Certainly not funny enough to pay for it.
February 21st, 2006 at 11:45 am
Watch thier ratings plummit. Paid for content just itsn’t the done thing when there is a tried and tested advertising model that you can apply. Gervais could throw in 5, four second adds and recieve a genourous amount of advertising revenue without having to make the listeners pay.
February 21st, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I’m torn. I thought the first 6 or so were incredibly funny, so much so I listen to them repeatedly and they don’t lose any of their humor. The last 5 (I haven’t heard the last one yet) I agree weren’t quite as funny, but still very enjoyable. I don’t mind paying and probably will, but I wish they were still on Itunes.
February 21st, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Oh, Robin and I are totally addicted to it. We’re seriously considering paying for it, although I doubt Gervais really needs the $$ at this point.
February 27th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I love the show, they are all very funny and worth the fee. I do wonder why not use advertising to pay for it. I probably would have paid for the show if it were a click of a button on itunes. But don’t want to set up an account on audible just for this single show. I use my itunes acount it is easy, sorry guys. Your worth it though.