Brockett Blog

The collective known as The Basketball Jones worked for four years on a podcast, starting audio-only at weekly intervals and graduating to a video show every day out of a Toronto apartment of mysterious origins. In the process, the on-air duo of J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas developed a strong reputation both in online and basketball circles for bringing strong analysis and a healthy dose of humor. Still, the podcast remained a passion project left to early morning pursuits because of one key factor: they were doing it without payment.

“I was sure that a sponsorship would come about,” said Skeets Saturday at the third Blogs With Balls conference in Chicago. Skeets and TBJ producer Matt Osten participated in the panel discussion concerning podcasts and leveraging that multimedia content into a “megabrand.” “I don’t know if they’re not ready for it, but …”

“We didn’t have a business plan,” added Osten, who joined the podcast and his friends a few years into its run. “To do something for free for four years … that’s a bad idea.”

Today, The Basketball Jones can be considered one of the success stories in the podcasting world. Canadian television network The Score picked up the show and the talent behind it, allowing those involved to work on the show full-time. They even added a weekly audio-only podcast (also broadcast on Sirius as part of the Score’s Hardcore Sports Radio channel) filled with blogger interviews and the best royalty-free music around. But, as panel moderator Matt Sebek of JoeSportsFan.com pointed out, the ease of entry into the field makes standing out difficult, let alone attracting advertisers to your product.

“There’s a lot of crap out there,” Sebek said.

The panel represented two schools of thought of the podcast creation process. Coming from a digital video background with his work for ESPN, David Jacoby espoused the virtues of postproduction. “A good 10 minutes turns into a great two minutes,” said Jacoby. Michael Rand of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Ian Orefice of SI.com also cited the need for successful video to be pegged to a story without repeating information that could be found in written forms. But the world of audio podcasts, including panelist Jay Busbee’s golf and NASCAR podcasts through Yahoo and Jacoby’s appearances on ESPN’s B.S. Report with Bill Simmons, is rife with long-form conversations and (seemingly) minimal post-production work.

Some of the most interesting conversation, of course, centered on the financial aspects of the multimedia world. If the Basketball Jones can’t attract sponsorship, what hope is there for the newer shows just beginning to set up iTunes availability and a fanbase? Busbee said his podcasts don’t have sponsorships just yet, despite the megabrand known as Yahoo and all the potential ears that entails. But he surmises that podcasting could be a point where sports blogs were a few years ago, before umbrella companies like SBNation and Yardbarker set up blog “networks” and made it easier for bloggers to get paid and have professional help in setting up advertising opportunities.

Video at the Blogs With Balls event showcased one way advertisers have embraced Internet advertising: sponsored original content. “The 30-second commercial is dying,” said Jacoby. “That’s where branded marketing comes in.” (Vicks sponsored ESPN’s online series Mayne Street, for example.) Panelists discussing “where ad dollars are headed” said much the same earlier in the conference, with particular focus on exchanging the reach of major advertising campaigns for integration and “engagement” with consumers.

What that will mean for audio podcasts, particularly independently produced podcasts, remains to be seen. Dan Levy, one of the most successful independent sports podcasters, called his show a “loss leader” on said show last Thursday. Levy now writes for The Sporting Blog, using both contacts and a style developed through his show. But Skeets hasn’t been totally discouraged by four years of commercial-free productions.

“I think we will see it (sponsorships), I really do,” he said.