Podcast series - stop stringing it out!

[Gingering]

I’m listening to a podcast series because it’s a story relevant to me, and I’ve only ever listened to a few podcast series and they’re all the same! An interesting story that would fill about 45 mins, but it’s been strung out to 6 x 30 mins episodes, padded out with ENDLESS recapping. Why do they do this? Why? It’s infuriating! Just make it one 45 min and I’d be able to listen to the whole thing, but 6 x 30 mins mostly of padding is unbearable.

Does anyone know why they do this?

Think you’re listening to the wrong podcasts 🥴

I find the documentary podcasts do this as do some documentaries v annoying

So you will listen to more episodes they will make more money, it’s fairly obvious surely?

It really is that simple OP, but still irritating.

It makes me stop listening. Can anyone recommend good ones that don't do this?

It’s the BBC. A murder of a schoolgirl by an another schoolgirl in Glasgow that happened near where I went to school. I’m not sure how they make more money by stringing it out? Do they just assume the only people listening to these things have really poof memory?

It's a big negative for me - an interesting subject is made tedious, and I stop listening. The opposite of what they think the approach encourages 🤷

The presenter has a really dull monotone voice to and speaks incredibly slowly, like she’s got 15 mins of material and has been asked to make it 30 mins so has chosen just to talk slowly to use up time.

Podcasts are so dull. All of them. Even topics I'm interested in. Just boring waffle.

Most podcasts and docuseries do this imo. Netflix can be especially bad. Brilliant first episode then tails off quickly. The final quarter often completely pointless!

I’m not sure how they make more money by stringing it out?
They make significantly more revenue having listeners engage over several episodes vs 1. The majority of platforms the podcast will be streamed on are revenue earners, and BBC content streamed from outside the UK has additional revenue from adverts.

Do they just assume the only people listening to these things have really poof memory?

No.

I'm picky about podcasts. I've found a few really decent ones but in general I prefer audiobooks for having some degree of editing. I get 15 hours a month of audiobooks on my Spotify plus my local library has a decent lending app.

I do love The Rest is History. They move along at a fair lick and the adverts included in the podcast (which the presenters voice) are actually pretty entertaining as they scrabble to make e.g. energy companies heros of some such period of history.

@Gingering

I listened to that podcast and really enjoyed it, but I agree it could have been a lot shorter.

Just listening to an American one and the presenter speaks soooo fast I have to keep checking that I haven't hit the double speed button! It's called Not Just a Terrible Story. The narrator could give Marina Hyde a run for her money.

BBC podcasts are often actually programmes produced for radio broadcast, across multiple days or weeks, so that may be why there seems to be a lot of recapping. The stretching out content is disappointing, but they were probably commissioned to make a say 6 part series, then had to write to fill that, and if you don't actually have many interesting interviews or new twists and turns and revelations, you just don't have much to fill all that time. But the BBC wouldn't want a one-off 45 min long programme, they want a 6 part "half hour slot" filler. So you do what you can with what you're allowed to work within!

thanks for the interesting explanation. I suppose I’m annoyed as you pay your tv licence and yet you get trailers for other BBC content all the time on iPlayer, and in this instance a good story ruined by the need to flog the story elsewhere.

I have to switch off the ones where the presenters start talking over each other and interrupting each other. BBC Sounds Top Comment is terrible for this. Nobody seems to get to finish a sentence.

I knew it would be BBC. Just said the same thing to my DH, almost word for word, about a different series. They just played the last episode on radio 4. Also about a really grim topic, and it was fairly obvious there would be no happy ending, but on and on it went with its ominous background "music".
My issue with it is that it centres the sleuthing, trying to turn it into a thriller. It's not, and if you actually want to know what happened, you just Google it, you don't wait to hear episode after grim episode. Just tell us what happened and explain why it matters.
Honourable mention to Michael Sheen and his report on the chemical dumps in Wales. That's how you do it.

I do think some tv series are also guilty of this. I seem to remember watching some Netflix series when I was ill last year and they did a similar thing. Spinning out stories for endless episodes.

I know what you mean as I have found similar with a podcast I was listening to about a woman who thought she was being a surrogate for a couple who couldn't have children, but turned out they had like 30 kids. I had to turn it off because each episode was about 45 minutes - 10 minutes telling you what they had covered in the previous, 10 minutes of adverts, 10 minutes telling you what was coming in future episodes, and about 10 - 15 minutes of new content.

I do disagree that all podcasts are rubbish though - some are good, some are bad. You'd never say all TV was bad, or all film.

I assume that it’s the murder of Diane Watson?

Is it respectfully done if I may ask? I knew Diane’s Mother, Margaret in that she was a dinner lady at our school and I have very fond memories of her, and I was considering listening but only if it’s respectful to the memory of Diane, Alan, Margaret and Jim.

It's a miracle of modern technology how you can squeeze a 10 minute documentary into an hour.

If you can find a source (YouTube) you will be amazed at stuff from the 1970s.

Yes, I thought it was very respectful to the victims.

Very much took the view that the family had been hard done by by the press at the time.