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Popular New York City sports talker Mike Francesa launched an app called “Mike’sOn” about a year ago. Fans had to pay $8.99 per month, or $99 per year, for his content. On Tuesday it was announced that Entercom, the radio company Francesa works for, purchased the app and it will be rolled into Radio.com where the content will be free.
This could be another indication that consumers have been trained that podcasts should be free and it isn’t that easy to convince them to pay for content, even for highly successful radio hosts with a big fan base.
Entercom Chief Digital Officer JD Crowley said, “Mike Francesa is a legend, and we are beyond thrilled to bring more Mike to Radio.com. Mike has some of the most loyal, engaged fans in all of sports, thanks to his unique ability to build a broad audience with must-listen, highly compelling audio content, always calling it like it is."
The content from the Francesa app will be available on Radio.com October 1.
Comments:
Not sure that you can draw the conclusion that paying for content that has traditionally been free is what this indicates. More likely, it probably indicates that Entercom values the content higher to draw users to Radio.com to be willing to pay for it. Premium Podcasting is in its infancy. For years, people got their TV programming for “free” (albeit ad supported), but networks like HBO and Showtime certainly demonstrated an appetite for premium programming.