Feedburner Stats Belie USA Today Podcast Bashing

By B.L. Ochman Andrew Kantor at USA Today writes that podcasting is not likely to go mainstream any time soon. But recent Feedburner stats belie Kantor's podcast bashing.

Kantor says that three roadblocks stand in the way of podcasting:

- an overwhelming number of choices of podcasts;
- the podcast equivalent of spam, because podcasts are so cheap to produce;
- the technology is still daunting to many potential listeners.

Where's podcasting going?

given that so much of radio programming ruly sucks these days, it is reasonable to expect that podcast stars will rise.

Listeners, rather than station conglomerates or advertisers, will determine which podcasters gain fame. Many podcasters I've listened to have lousy production values and are in need of a good editor, or, at the least, media training to improve their listenability.

I think a subscription model will arise, paid through iTunes or a similar service, and that PBS-type sponsorship will be the eventual advertising model.

Feedburner, which now facilitates the delivery of 1.6 million podcasts a day, and adds as many as 250 podcasts to its feeds daily, notes in a podcast, (natch!) that the average feed has 35 listeners, although there are many with substantial audience.