PodMov Daily: Thursday, October 17

Episode 67: Your Thursday Podthoughts

Limetown Creators on Visually Adapting the Sci-Fi Hit

A highly anticipated TV adaptation of the sci-fi podcast Limetown premiered last night. Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci star in the Facebook Watch drama series that tells the fictional story of Lia Haddock, a podcasting journalist unraveling a mystery involving 300 missing people.

CinemaBlend spoke to the podcast’s creators who reveal “the challenges and changes that came with adapting their podcast into a TV show.” A neuroscience research community vanishing into thin air isn’t the only reason to listen/watch. As Collider’s review of the first episode confirms, podcasting is totes glamorous:

“Just watching Lia tool around with her podcasting equipment feels exciting if only because we so rarely see the mechanics of podcasting onscreen.”

Dueling Platforms and the Race to Adapt Advertising

Discussing the growing role of platforms and ad tech in podcasting, Max Willens of Digiday forecasts that the industry’s “small, beautiful age is drawing to a close.” While the focus of last year’s IAB Upfront event was on “measurement and targeting,” Willens sees an “unofficial theme” of giant platforms in this year’s matrix.

As podcasting rises to become a “billion-dollar market by 2021,” brand advertisers will be driving most of that growth. As mega-platforms spend more to produce hit shows, niche advertising may be in trouble. Willens anticipates that “smaller individual publishers and networks [will be] getting creative to fight over what’s left.”

Large-scale ad buys will increase efficiency and ad dollars, sure, but some network leaders aren’t signing up. As Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini wrote on Twitter: “When you make ads the skippable middle man, they will get skipped […] When you are a part of only one piece but not the entire conversation, you will get lost.”

Student Podcasters of The Lead Share the Creation Process

Charlotte Norsworthy is the student host and editor of The Lead from the Cox Institute for Journalism Innovation, Management & Leadership at the University of Georgia. It’s an interview show “about how to get ahead in the media industry by interviewing the people who did.”

Norsworthy has shared a well-organized, concise guide to creating the show from start to finish, including explanations of tools from soundboard to sound effects. It also covers distribution tips and features links to many tried-and-true free resources.

The introduction states, “My goal here is that others will find this useful for years to come, and those of you thinking about starting a podcast will finally make the leap.” If you find it useful, be sure to thank the hardworking podcasters who put it together.

Thanks for the #weeklypodtip responses and keep ’em coming, please!

Happy Thursday, readers, and thank you for the turnout on Twitter in response to our #weeklypodtip request. This one immediately jumped out as a time-saver which is always appreciated. Keep it up, buds.

Cheers,
Team PM

Here’s what else is going on:

• Top talent: Shonda Rhimes, producer of TV megahits “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” is the latest to partner with iHeart. Rhimes’s production company, Shondaland, announced a 3-year deal to produce “a full slate” of iHeartRadio original podcasts.

• Full circle: NBC News and Wondery will be developing a slate of news and politics podcasts beginning in 2020. As part of the “multiyear deal” announced at yesterday’s IAB Podcast Upfront event, NBC News’ existing podcasts will be opened up to Wondery’s U.S. and U.K. advertisers.

• Smooth simplicity: To banish distortion and dropouts from your sound quality, check The Podcast Host’s “minimalist rig” guide to “capturing professional sound in the simplest podcasting scenario: a single-microphone setup, in a fixed location, in a controlled environment.”

• Listeners speak: Westwood One has released its Podcast Download Report for Fall 2019. Findings suggest that “ad preferences for the industry and listeners are at a crossroads – listeners want host-read ads while the use of traditional pre-produced ads is growing.”