Podcast advertising

Venture capitalists, startup companies, and media giants are busy finding ways to make podcasting turn a profit, with one estimate suggesting that podcast advertisements could from the $30 billion radio advertising market in three to five years time. Adam Curry this month won a $9.8 million investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Sequoia Capital, two top venture firms in the Silicon Valley who "saw the amazing adoption across the Net, and it was obvious that there was a big opportunity," according to a report from BusinessWeek Online. CBS, Clear Channel Communications, and Walt Disney are producing podcasts alongside individuals even as Apple, Yahoo, and AOL race to produce aggregation services to pool thousands of podcasts into centralized locations.

Popular podcasts are setting flat rates ranging from a few thousand dollars a month to as much as $45,000, according to the report. In one instance, Volvo agreed to pay $60,000 for a six-month sponsorship of the monthly podcast of Weblog's Autoblog, along with advertising on the website itself. In another case, a radio station out of Santa Monica made plans to charge $25 per one-thousand listeners once its current deal expires with Lexus. In yet another instance, an independent podcaster with over 200,000 listeners reportedly asks for $2 donations each month, raking in around $10,000 per month.

by MacNN Staff