3 Ways Podcasting is Changing TV

It’s an exciting time to be a content creator – for all of us! Not long ago, documentaries were gloomily known as the “D” word…since no one wanted to buy them. Now they’re hot as ever thanks to streamers like Netflix and cable networks who’ve followed suit. On the flip side, podcasting was once thought of as a geeky pass time (hello, Biagio!) It’s now exploded in popularity. In some cases podcasts have even beaten TV at the game of winning pop culture buzz. Being TV producers and filmmakers, networks have begun asking us to find ways to marry the two worlds. Along the way we’ve learned a bunch, and today we’re sharing 3 ways we see podcasting changing how television is developed and made. We’ve got the answers you need, some landmines to look out for, and real-world advice for this new frontier where TV gets married to podcasting. Knee Deep in TV and Podcasts We’ve been doing this podcast, Producing Unscripted, for a long time now (since 2013!) It’s a small little thing we record on Biagio’s iPhone and put up when we can during production “breaks.” (Which have been less and less lately – thankfully we’ve been in production non-stop, but we miss you all!) This is a really a personal endeavor. It’s something we do for fun and to meet new people. For the most part, it’s been a really positive experience. Plus a way for us to talk about what we do at our company Joke Productions. But we never considered ourselves “pro podcasters.” Then, to our surprise, podcasting would suddenly become a much bigger part of our career. Unmasking Podcasting & TV Several years ago, we were making a series for CNN and HLN called Unmasking a Killer. They approached us about producing and hosting an Unmasking a Killer Podcast with the series. It was an eye-opening experience, and we learned some valuable lessons we discuss on today’s episode. And if you want to hear the two of us doing material that’s far more serious, you can check out the Unmasking a Killer podcast. That was our first glimpse into where it looks like the worlds of TV and podcasting are heading. Networks everywhere were exploring how they could participate in the podcasting space. Unraveling Podcasting & TV On our current series, Unraveled, podcasting has become even more crucial. We developed the series itself as a hybrid. Rather than making a TV show and producing a podcast “on the side” we’re filming a TV series about podcasters who are investigative journalists. The project captures them actively tracking down leads and interviewing people, all while making a podcast. Each two hour TV episode has an accompanying seven hours of podcast eps. That’s a lot of content! To get an idea of how deep the it goes, check out the Unraveled Podcast. For you editors and techie-types, Adobe wrote a story about Joke Productions and how we edited the podcast in conjunction with the TV series. The Future of Podcasting and TV It’s become clear that if you’re a st...