Kellie O’Riordan from ABC opened her presentation by saying that podcasting in Australia is growing, ‘Ozzy podcast fans are highly engaged’. The ABC started their podcasting journey by looking at specific groups that were not served by traditional radio - working families, young families and those at home, podcasting is filling this space.
ABC Audio Studios creates pure podcasts but at the start they had some teething problems. They quickly learnt that the audience should lead what the podcasts should be about.
Podcasts coming from ABC educational, funny, family podcasts, they however kept creating. ‘Ladies we need to talk’ is a podcast about topics which were taboo for women.
How do you sleep at night is a podcast about people who work in for example the Tabaco industry or kill endangered speakers.
Short & Curly is a podcast for kids about ethical issues ready for school holidays in the car.
Kellie spoke about the mistakes she and her team made, basically trying to do everything! Including launching Ozpod conference along side creating new podcasts, executive producting etc!!
ABC’s podcasts became a hit and resonated by the core and also a non-core audience. The offering therefore grew. From this partnerships with other podcasts started.
As the podcasts became more popular ABC experimented with new formats – bite sized programmes.
Kellie announced a new podcast “Reasons to Stay Alive” a memoir of mental health and suicide “What does it meant to want to die”.
ABC has also launched a new true crime series “Unravel - Blood on the tracks”.
“Podcasts are no longer a side hustle”
Kellie game her top tips on podcasting to end; “commissioning is king, think about the consumption of your podcasts, work begins at the point you publish, celebrate your wins”.