Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

We had a few posts around here, last week and week before, about major media companies coming around and offering content as podcasts. I mean NBC does it via MSNBC for news programs (as reported in NBC Wins!), CBS News does it, ABC News does it and I previously ASSUMED FOX was actually in the lead by not only doing news programs but also doing it for entertainment programming such as House, The Simpsons, Family Guy and more - per FOXCasts.

Well as it turned out I could not have been more wrong when I originally thought FOX was catching on. FOXCasts are basically some clown NARRATING a paraphrased version of the shows. Yeah, some guy reads the plot line of The Simpsons and Family Guy, sans jokes. WTF? You get ads before and after, and a totally asinine narration paraphrasing. FOX really really does NOT get it.

I noticed also that Family Guy and Simpsons are now on the iTunes top 100. That will last about two weeks, until everyone figures out the narration crap.

I will admit that some sort of narrated synopsis for dramatic shows might be valuable to a very small audience (I missed the last House, what happened?). However, I find it completely ridiculous to expect that people want to hear a narrated run down of what happened in a comedy show on a regular basis (or any show for that matter - also ridiculous to not clearly explain what they are offering, dont just say its "Family Guy", because its not - its "Some guy reading what happened in the last Family Guy" - somewhat less appealing).

Who will be the first to really step up to the plate and offer up their damn network produced shows as podcasts? Who will really "get it". Yes I like all the news programs made available, but what about the rest of the shows? Sure there may be implications with later syndication, I guess, if you podcast everything. Networks might be afraid they would cannibalize syndication revenue if they podcast (thats a guess)? I will accept that. But at the same time there still has to be some motivation/recognition that you can make some bank from the podcasts themselves as well, and have more control over the entire process (change up the ads every week, even in your "archived" podcasts, etc). Yeah people will start sharing and swapping them, so what. Put some ads in the podcasts, make them at least a month old or something, and get em out there. That would likely not only result in revenue for networks, but also, get this, MORE interest in the shows all around.

Grumble, expletive, grumble, FOXCasts, pshaaaaw.