Other Advantages

I was listening to some more podcasts today and have some more comparisons for you. Some of these are related to the Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV article.

You can listen to a podcast anytime you chose, you don't have to be listening at a particular time to hear it and you can listen to it as many times as you like. This also has the advantage that you can pause the show or back up if you miss something. Unfortunately, it also means that if the show has contests or call in questions, like BBC's The Naked Scientists or NPR Science Friday, then you are out of luck and cannot participate.

Podcasts, unlike broadcast shows, can be of variable length and are not constrained by time slots. In the Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV article, I mentioned that I heard the producer of Battlestar Galactica complain that they were stuck with 60 minute segments, and that it was MAJOR drama to get a 90 minute slot, or a two hour special because of the second and third order effects for the network, the advertisers, TV Guide, moving other shows, etc. Podcasts can stand on their own and can use precisely the amount of time they need to do the job properly. Unfortunately, podcasts swiped off existing radio shows, like The Naked Scientists or NPR Science Friday carry over the time constraints and you constantly hear them cut off interesting discussions and great guest speakers because they run out of time on the "on the air" show. Other podcasts, such as Military History Podcast, This Week in Nuclear, and The Atomic Show all vary their length according to need because they are a podcast from the ground up.

NPR Science Friday does take a little bit of a hybrid approach though, in that they break down the radio show by topic, so you can listen to a discrete segment of the show to hear the topic you want to listen to, rather than listen to a whole indivisible hour long show with a mixed bag of stuff, like The Naked Scientists. The latter show is good, but you are stuck listening to a whole hour long show, sometimes covering more than one topic. If you want to go back and listen to something specific, good luck. Science Friday makes it a bit simpler, and you have some that run for 9-12 minutes on brief subjects, to 30 minutes or more for more complex discussions or special guests--but it's all related.

Battlestar Galactica is a special case, in that it's meant to be played at the same time as you watch the show, and is much more like the directors comments when you purchase a DVD.

As I mentioned in Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV, I hope they make "TV shows" for the internet like they make podcasts. You can already download standard TV shows, like Battlestar Galactica on iTunes, but it's the same as you'd see on The Sci-Fi Channel. I think it would be neat if they would make variable length programming like some of these podcasts that suit exactly what the director had in mind, rather than constraining themselves to a set timeslot.

Star This to Save in Your Profile