Depending on where you’re finding the numbers, there are between 3 million and 5 million podcasts out there right now.
There are also about 200 streaming services.
For the uninitiated, the group of a podcast analog natives which kinda sorta includes me, a podcast is an online broadcast that you can sign up for online and listen at your leisure. Please be aware that there are approximately six minutes of commercial per one minute of content on the podcast, so it can be a slow slog through the material. Is it worth it? It depends on how much you like what you’re able to listen to. (We’ll get back to this in a few minutes.)
Streaming services are often the offshoots of more established broadcast channels. Do you like shows on CBS? You can subscribe to Paramount+, which is pronounced “Paramount Plus,” not “Paramount Plus Sign.” If you like what’s on NBC, you can subscribe to Peacock. You get the idea.
We do have access to Paramount+, but since my wife and I are analog natives, we’re used to the three major broadcast networks we grew up with. The other day, however, there was nothing we were — actually, I was — interested on the standard networks so I turned on to Paramount+ and watched what is called the 16th season of “Criminal Minds,” which carries the subhead of “Evolution.” The show was one of our favorites when it was on and I had read that “Evolution” was pretty good. So after a lengthy search for the show — these things don’t come with instructions, after all — I finally started it and we watched several episodes.
Again, for the uninitiated, it’s called “binge watching.” We could watch as many episodes as we wanted.
We started and sometime after Saturday evening became Sunday morning, I realized that we had watched seven 52-minute episodes — that’s 364 minutes, or just over six hours — and there were still three episodes to go.
So we called it off and went to bed. We had company on Sunday afternoon — it was Mother’s Day, after all — and left Paramount+ alone for the day.
So I’m thinking — that was one show on one streaming service for one day. Saturday evening just disappeared. If we hadn’t decided that we needed to go to bed, Sunday morning could have disappeared as well.
(“Dave, we missed you at church Sunday.” “Well, we had to stay up late last night and find out if a group of FBI agents were going to catch a Georgia-based serial killer.”)
Back to podcasts. There are a few of them that interest me, such as “Nobody listens to Paula Poundstone” and “Language of God” from BioLogos, but I haven’t got time to listen to them. I’m still geeked up to listen to NPR on what’s known as “terrestrial radio” and “Road Trip Radio” on SiriusXM, a satellite-delivered service that really isn’t worth the money we paid to renew it. (It was included in the price of the Jeep when we bought the thing.) I will say, however, that Road Trip Radio is really cool. Still, SiriusXM says on its website that it has 425+ (pronounced “425 plus”) channels to listen to.
Forget it. I have between 3 million and 5 million podcasts awaiting my attention.
daves@news-banner.com
