This won't go down well in the blogosphere. Or the podcastosphere. Or whatever it's called.
There were a couple of jokes in an episode of the Ricky Gervais Show podcast about how much money they would have made if they had charged for downloads.
And now. it seems, that's exactly what they're going to do. A second season of shows starts next Tuesday (a week after the previous season ended) but this time it will be hosted by Audible and you'll have to pay for the shows. According to the story on CNET
Audible will charge $1.95 per episode or $6.95 for the season, which will include at least four episodes by the creator and star of television's "The Office." Audible's exclusive deal also runs for a "season three," which will start in the fall.
I've enjoyed listening to the Guardian podcasts, but it's all been getting a bit samey and I don't think I'll be bothering to pay for the privilege of listening to new ones.
It'll be interesting to see if it succeeds though. Will be people willing to pay for something that they've been getting for free for the last three months?
And how do Guardian Unlimited feel about losing the show after putting all that work into building up the audience?
p.s. The title of this story on the Guardian Technology Blog is a little unfortunate. It says "Gervais podcast going paid-for from Guardian Unlimited: Technology". The story is from GU, not the paid-for podcast.
I listened to the first two of the free ones, and found them tedious in the extreme. Ricky just seems to laugh uncontrollanbly at the others saying completely stupid things.
I subscribed to the podcast, and have the other episodes, are any of them actually worth me wasting 30 minutes on?
If that's what you thought of the first couple, then I really wouldn't bother with the rest.
I enjoyed the first few. It's only as they got past halfway that I started to get a bit bored of it all.