In November, as the media frenzy over “Serial” was catching steam, I was interviewed by CNBC about the phenomenon. You can read this excellent article here.
Down at the bottom you’ll find a comment I made to the reporter: “For Edison Research’s Rosin, what was ‘hugely significant’ about ‘Serial’ was the interest from ‘Hollywood and the creative classes.’ That, he said, is where the innovation — and money — was.”
Sure enough — this week brought the announcement from Discovery Networks that it is planning its own crime-related podcast for its Investigation Discovery network. You can read about this announcement in this article from Adweek.
Humorously, the Discovery exec who announced it, Henry Schleiff said: “I think we were all surprised by the amount of press and attention — and indeed some of the viewership or ‘soundship’ — that the podcast got.” Let me help you out there Mr. Schleiff — maybe go with “listenership.”
While their plans aren’t yet fully baked, there is an intriguing mention of television or web-based tie-ins. The podcast roll continues — and it will be fascinating to see if video-based story tellers can successfully master the audio medium.