Hedging bets

Here's a funny thing. BBC Studios, presumably aware of BBC Sounds' international ambitions, has decided to buy into another podcasting platform, Pocket Casts. And the announcement suggests that BBC Sounds will put some of its most popular pods on the app.

Pocket Casts was developed by two Australians back in 2012; its odd name builds on their first app, Pocket Weather, from 2008. In May 2018 it was taken over by a group of US public radio stations, including NPR, WNYC Studios and WBEZ Chicago, and their alumni at This American Life, who developed the breakthrough true crime podcast Serial. They've put in place a new CEO from iHeart Radio. The business model is a little unclear; it's now free to download, but there are ads and purchase offers; there's a premium model for computers. It carries 'featured' podcasts, so may be asking publishers for fees there.

It has less than 2% of the US market by unique devices (100% is around 40 million), coming just behind iHeart Radio. The big battle is still between Apple's apps and platforms and Spotify, with Google lagging in fourth. Many reviewers note similarities between the Google app and the Pocket Casts interface.