Ricky Gervais sure thinks so and it looks like he's right.
When Gervais started charging for his podcast last season, there was a lot of interest surrounding whether that model would work or not. Many people (myself included) couldn't see a "pay-per-listen" model work for a comedy show. Educational info? Sure, comedy? No.
Looks like we were wrong. Gervais claims over a half a million downloads per show by the end of the first series.
The cost per episode runs anywhere from .41 cents to $2.95 (depending on how you buy them). Assuming everyone took the best deal (and we know they all didn't), Gervais is looking at a minimum of $200,000 in gross sales. Sorry, but that's a crapload of money for podcasting because costs are relatively low.
Nice.
The latest noise from the Gervais camp has led many people to mistakenly report they are getting half a million downloads of the pay-for episodes. However, the first series, to which these recod-breaking figures relate exclusively, was a free subscription and download. No accurate figures have been released concerning download figures of the commercial shows - though unlikely they are at half a million, they have certainly been a decent earner.
Posted by: neil | June 24, 2006 2:17 AM | Permalink to Comment