Looks like Ricky Gervais (and Steve Merchant and Karl ‘I could eat a knob at night‘ Pilkington) are looking to commercialise on the success of their first series of podcasts. The second series is going to be a pay-for affair via Audible.com. The asking rate is $6.95 for ‘at least four’ episodes.
I’m guessing the majority of readers will be hitting Mininova for the non-DRM version, but the (debatably) Guiness-verified “world’s most popular podcast” might also be one of the most lucrative.
I can’t help but feel a little ripped off that these guys have ridden the podcast meme to get listeners from around the world, only to go commercial. I wonder if a ‘donate’ button would be a better option?
Surely they could just pop a torrent on their site, as they claim to only be charging for the bandwidth~
The strangest thing about the whole shebang is that until yesterday, I had never ever heard of the Ricky Gervais Podcast. Then, a mate played it at work; I was sent some semi-spam advertising it; I read about them wanting to charge for it, on Slashdot; then I read about it again here. Ignorant bliss to four times in a day… damn intertron. Bring back the fax!
Oh yes, I have downloaded the torrent of Season 2. If anyone would like, I can host it on my sexy website?