Tuesday, June 26, 2007

BBC's The Now Show Podcast - cancelled.

The following is what I emailed to the BBC regarding their cancellation of The Now Show Podcast. You can see their "reason" by clicking the link above.

"The height of bad manners is pulling The Now Show Podcast. It sucks to not have this show available as a download. I travel a lot (and I mean A LOT) and I can't always get the bandwidth to listen to it online. When Can We Get The Now Show Back????

I took part in a survey / focus group recently and gave strong positive feedback about the BBC's podcasting strategy. Is this how we get rewarded for it?

What other shows are going to be pulled? Perhaps I should spend more time at Channel 4 Radio?"

I am NOT HAPPY. Grrrrr....

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:02 pm

    The thing you need to remember about the BBC and podcasting is that it's just a trial at the moment.

    The reason for this is because of the way the Beeb is funded and regulated - basically they're not allowed to launch any full new services (unless its a short term trial) without a public service and commercial impact review by the BBC Trust.

    As series finish they will be dropped from the BBC podcast list as well - until Podcasting has been through the full review.

    I believe this is pretty close as the iPlayer has been authorised so by the end of the year ALL BBC shows (that don't contain music and are fully owned by the BBC) should be available to download.

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  2. Thanks for the comment Ryan. I think you are 100% correct in your summation. The only caveat I would add is to say that this is the third series which has been available to be podcast and the other two have. So what gives? Why cancel the podcast

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  3. Anonymous4:55 pm

    It's more about timing than the number of series to be honest.

    The BBC Podcast trial was due to run for a set period of time and the shows authorised to be made available as podcasts needed to be broadcast (or at least have their series start) within that time frame.

    The latest series of The Now Show has fallen just outside that frame.

    You'll probably also have noticed that the only new podcasts launching are Video ones - thats because the BBC have moved on to a video podcast trial which will end fairly soon.

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  4. Hi Ryan - I guess that sounds more reasonable but I *really* hope they bring the Now Show podcast back. I travel a lot and the only way I can listen is by downloading it!

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  5. Anonymous5:28 am

    I doubt it will be back. The BBC are under a lot of political/regulatory pressure from commercial broadcaster over this. See my blog. The original BBC Trust press release I linked to has disappeared though.

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  6. Anonymous11:53 am

    Perhaps there are fans like us have it recorded for file sharing online... Let me know if anyone have the link. Hee hee... :)

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  7. @Anonymous - surely you're not condoning illegal file sharing are you?

    Whilst I can't myself get involved in such nefarious activity myself (p/ch-erish the thought) I might find it hard to delete a posting with a suitable link in it. I WANT MY T.N.S.!

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  8. I am posting said podcasts in MP3 format at Digital Spy. There is even some archive stuff there for the real die-hards...

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=596464

    No doubt the BBC heavies will be around soon to make me take them down, just as soon as they've sorted out the phone competition fiasco.

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