Blog Relations

The Ricky Gervais podcast that started on The Guardian, and has been the biggest success of podcasting so far, is to introduce charging. Its second seaon will be on sale from Feb 28. Episodes will cost 95 pence each or 3.75 pounds for the four-episode season. In the United States, they will sell for $1.95 each or $6.95 for the season.

“If you’ve got an account with the iTunes music store for the country you live in, you can use that — or if not, you can use Audible.com, which will work with virtually any combination of computer and MP3 player and it doesn’t matter which country you live in,” accroding to the Gervais website.

That is going to be a fascinating experiment – and one that may well determine what business model podcasting develops into. The Gervais podcast has been a huge hit, and if anyone can get away with charging he can. He has also made the right decision in going for a low price. Under a pound is not much for a show.

If he makes a go of it, plenty of other podcasts may find they can charge small sums for their shows, and the podcasting business will develop into something like the audio books industry. If he can’t, podcasts will remain free, supported by adverts and sponsors.

My own guess is that the free model is the right one. The advertisers and sponsors will realise what a great medium podcasting is soon, and there will be podcasters delivering the big audiences needed to interest big companies. There will be no need for charging, since it will only limit the size of the audience.

But we’ll find out soon enough. Certainly everyone will be watching to see how Gervais gets on.