Paradise, Podcasts, and the Problem with Vodcasts
The TV show you MUST WATCH TODAY, some $ crunching, and what I'm listening to Wednesday
Let’s start with television.
Well before we start with television, let’s get into what we even mean by Television. This is similar to “What Is A Podcast” which is one of my favorite straw arguments.
Last night, I sat in a chair and watched a 70 inch Video Monitor where entertainment programming was served to me over the internet via a Roku stick. Is that Television? No VHF transmissions were involved. Does ANYONE care? No. I was watching TV. The rest of the details don’t matter.
Imagine if my wife yelled downstairs, “Are you watching TV?” and I said back “Actually I am watching entertainment programming streamed to me over the internet…” Insert Marge Simpson Face.
Later that evening, in the same chair, on the same video monitor, using the same Roku, I stared at some people in “Zoom Boxes” talking into microphones. Is that a podcast? Is it television? What even is it?
I wouldn’t call Zoom Boxes a TV show. But I also wouldn’t call Zoom Boxes a podcast because obviously its a vodcast.
Anyway, the normies don’t care about these arguments, they just “watch TV” or “watch podcasts” (grrr, they obviously mean vodcasts).
YOU should be watching Paradise on Hulu. I am not going to say a thing about the show other than you need to trust me on this one. In olden times, it would be the only thing everyone is talking about this morning. Watch Paradise, catch up, and then come back to me.
I’m also really enjoying The Pitt, which a doctor I know tells me is the “most real” medical show that she’s seen. The previous holder of that title, believe it or not, was Scrubs (when they were being serious.)
Zero Day on Netflix isn’t bad either.
There’s been some conversation around the use of AI in podcasting (some of it on podcasts about podcasting that use AI for their artwork instead of hiring a professional trained artist - what’s with that? Stop feeding me your AI generated Slop Artwork!!!! Rage!!!!! Anger!!!!!!) It wouldn’t surprise me if those people are using AI to help with their show notes and using plug-ins to fix their audio instead of recording everything correctly the first time!
I think the AI conversation around AI voices is based upon most people having no idea how to use AI correctly, and that most people have heard no-effort Google LM shows.
A year ago, I made Top Tour. All the voices are AI. When you hit click, it sounds good. From the listener standpoint, does anything else matter? It sounds good. DISCLOSURE: Neither the cars nor the goats (spoiler) are “real.” I did not use a live band for the music. I did not hire a producer to write show notes. I did not rent two sports cars and do a photo shoot in the desert for the cover art.
Now those horrible people at Caloroga Shark Media have used an AI Narrator on White Smoke!
Oh wait, if you hit play, it sounds good.
I was really interested in Trevor Noah (real person, I think) explaining editing jokes on the fly during the Grammys as he felt the room. How do you both play to the room (in a somber mood because of the LA fires) and the people at home? Very smart execution, very insightful. Skip about 1:20 in.
I commented about Trevor on the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes of Daily Comedy News which was hosted by Human Me although Johnny MacBot hosted an an epsiode and a half when I was sick.
Here’s my AI Clone filling in for me. The technology isn’t perfect….yet. In my case, it tends to pick up on the sing-song inflections in my delivery and over-do them. OTOH it isn’t bad and I often use the AI for pickups so good that I can’t even tell that it isn’t me. A reminder, this technology is only going to get better. Oh, and don’t forget to feed your horse.
Another Podcast about Podcasting for you to check out is Podcasting Morning Chat. It’s some sort of group chat turned into a podcast (is that a podcast, or is that “just” a group chat delivered over RSS? I can play this game all day.) and they got into the topic of vodcasting….so if nothing else, I got one other show to follow my lead that we aren’t going to cede the term Podcasting to those video makers. Boy, I hope their episode art wasn’t AI generated, the Anti AI people are gonna get mad at them.
On The Feed, Rob Walch had smart things to say about Video/Vodcasting. (Transcript via Apple Podcasts, although I did tweak the formatting. By the way, isn’t it impressive that Apple hires a human to write down every single word that is said on every single podcast? And they do it so quickly!)
“I'm not anti-video. I am people, I'm anti-video when done poorly.
And you have such competition on the video side, and it's so many things to think about to get it right. Unlike audio, which you need a quiet room and a decent mic and you're golden. Video, you need great lighting, you need a decent backdrop, not one where your meth addicted ADHD squirrel has done the bookshelf behind you”
This morning, James Cridland came to my house and dropped a printing press copy of Podnews in the mailbox (much thanks to the monks who do the typesetting each morning) which mentioned this Digiday piece about how much people are making from their Youtube videos. I bet your boss is going to be excited about how much time you’re spending on shorts vs the ROI!
(One Creator) told Digiday that his average RPM for 20-to-30-minute long-form videos was roughly $5.50, compared to an average RPM of $0.18 for Shorts.
Let’s ignore shorts for another day.
Your 30 Minute Vodcast that you spent all that time on money on got - lets say 50,000 views. Nice job! That couch and fake plant are paying dividends!
I am bad at math, so I used an AI to tell me how much $ we would be making from a Vodcast that gets 50,000 views. The AI told me “with 50,000 views and an RPM of $5.50, you would make $275.”
OK let’s run, six ads in the half hour. Thats $1650 per 30 minute Vodcast with 6 spots.
$1650 you say. Great, let’s make one a week for 52 weeks! That’s $85,800! Not too bad. How much does the full time video editor (plus benefits) make?
Now we could make two videos a week. Or run 7 ads. Or get 100,000 downloads. Or book Trump and Elon and get 1,000,000 downloads. Or sit in the basement and talk about Paradise in Zoom Boxes and get 5,000 downloads. Your numbers may vary.
An episode of The Daily from 24 hours ago is telling me it has 17,000 views. It appears they just do the static image thing.
Theo Von’s show from 5 days ago has 841,000+ views. Looks like the money he spent on plants is well worth it!
AI tells me:
If you had 841,000 views and an RPM of $5.50, here's how the calculation works:
841,000 views is 841 groups of 1,000 views. With an RPM of $5.50, you would make: 841 ×5.50 = 4,630.50
So, with 841,000 views and an RPM of $5.50, you would make $4,630.50.
Not bad. Let’s run six spots and make around $27,000off that episode. Not bad at all. (I did not take the time to see how many spots Theo runs. Media Thoughts By John McDermott is for entertainment purposes only,
Anyway, Rob Walch is against Video Done Poorly. I’m against Video That Doesn’t Work Within The Budget. As Your Boss just might be come July.
I still got it Fonz! Last week’s SEO Whore Week Trivia About Podcasts Week did well. I have more bad news for everyone. Host Mark Ellison is an AI.
The numbers are up on Ballot as well, as we do late night style monologues every morning. It seems there’s been a lot of things to make fun of since mid January. Hey, you don’t suppose Patrick Gutfield is an AI, do you?
In other news, sadly NPR is laying off more people. The New York Times reports:
The cuts are the latest in a series over the past few years. In September, 14 of the 302 employees were laid off, with a dozen more taking voluntary layoffs. A year earlier, New York Public Radio announced that it would cut its work force by about 12 percent.
Mr. Oliver said …..The moves put the company within “striking distance of break-even for the first time in some years,
I am sad to hear anyone loses their job. As I age I have taken to using the phrase “many things can be true at the same time.” I am sad to hear anyone loses their job. At the same time, I think a lot of shows are way overstaffed.
I have mentioned before about hearing 30 minute podcasts with NINETEEN names in the credits. And then there was that study last week that suggested a show-runner salary might be $400,000. Madness.
So, yeah Mark Ellison is going to read you the trivia questions on the profitable 5 Daily Trivia Questions show. Ellison and I are planning on knocking out two week’s worth this afternoon.
Speaking of AI, sometimes I use AI to help me craft this newsletter. I have trained it on my previous writing. Sometimes I know kinda what I want to say on a Music Monday and it helps me straighten out my thinking.
Today, I have personally human-brain and human-fingers written everything you’ve read, except the title. I couldn’t think of a way to tie this all together.
I didn’t like the first thing it came up with. I said “Try Again.” Then it came up with Paradise, Podcasts, and the Problem with Vodcasts - which I love as it is Rule Of Three and has the alliteration. It didn’t give me the subheading, so I came up with that on my own.
Anyway, I have to go feed my horse now. I am going to ride her into town to get some new horseshoes from the blacksmith. I don’t believe in those newfangled Horseless Carriages some of you Transportation Aficionados have started using. For me, it’s horse and buggy, or you’re just using Artificial Horsepower.