The journalist behind podcasts including Oh God, What Now? and The Bunker has claimed that the BBC’s Sounds platform gives the corporation an “unfair advantage” over independent producers.
Andrew Harrison, the co-founder and group editor of Podmasters, has called on Sounds to be “opened up” to more privately-produced podcasts to encourage competition in the sector.
Harrison, a former music magazine editor, compared Sounds to a newsstand, adding: “If the BBC owns one of the biggest newsstands in the country, why would it only sell BBC products?”
He told Press Gazette’s Future of Media Explained podcast that when he was editing Smash Hits magazine, he felt the BBC handed an unfair advantage to Top Of The Pops Magazine by promoting it on television.
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“I think we’re getting to a similar point there with Sounds because, for a lot of people who are maybe not as media adventurous as maybe others are, BBC Sounds is podcasting – it’s the universe of podcasting. It’s where all the podcasts are and there aren’t any other podcasts. It is advertised for them regularly on radio and television. It’s pushed through the BBC website… So the BBC is very successfully creating a situation where it’s the one-stop for audio. But what that means is that independent broadcasting is disadvantaged.”
He added: “I don’t think we’re getting a fair crack of the whip in podcasting. I think there’s a real danger that a lid will be put on the ability of independent podcasting to grow.
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“And there is precedent for the BBC being compelled to support independent producers. You know, we’ve seen BBC television compelled to use independent production companies to bring life to some of their existing properties…
“I think there’s an absolute case that Sounds ought to be opened up to independent podcasts.”
The BBC said it had previously spoken about bringing third-party podcasts on to Sounds. A small number of non-BBC titles, including The Rest Is History, produced by Goalhanger Podcasts, are available. Sounds is one of several podcast platforms available in the UK. The most popular are Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Harrison was speaking to the Future of Media Explained about the growth of his company, Podmasters, which he said currently attracts more than 1.6 million downloads per month.
Harrison entered podcasts in 2017 when he used a PPI compensation payout to help co-found the weekly show Remainiacs. He said Remainiacs, which was later renamed Oh God, What Now, quickly attracted 10,000 downloads and then grew rapidly from there.
Podmasters generates revenues from crowdfunding site, Patreon, as well as through Apple Podcasts, where it sells a subscription package offering listeners early and ad-free access to all of its shows. Podmasters also sells merchandise and hosts live shows.
In April last year, PwC forecast that the UK podcast advertising market would grow to a £64million-revenue sector by 2025. Harrison said that figure “seems really low to me because, you know, I’m not saying we’re making £64million a year, but, you know, we’re just one company and we are doing pretty well – to the extent that we’re profitable and we’re able to employ people. I would imagine that that would grow quite a lot.”
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