Why is HBO making shows from podcasts?

HBO has signed a deal with political podcast Pod Save America that will see the popular show become a series of TV specials. The episodes will be shot and broadcast during the 2018 midterms, produced and starring the usual trio of (the other) Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor. It’s the second time in recent months that the cable giant has sought to adapt a podcast, following its deal with 2 Dope Queens.

Podcasts jumping into bed with HBO may seem like a strange fit, especially given the network’s love for well-heeled prestige drama. But it’s likely a shrewd move, given the current broadcasting landscape and HBO’s own need to find new audiences. This year sees the channel coming to the end a period of dominance where it can lay claim to owning Game of Thrones, the world’s most hyped TV show.

When Game of Thrones began, its same-day ratings — views within the first 24 hours of broadcast — were 2.5 million. By ordinary cable standards, that’s a success, and Westworld’s first-season finale earned 2.2 million views during its live broadcast alone. But those figures look lackluster compared with Thrones’ sixth season, which earned 7.7 million views in that same 24-hour window.

HBO, unlike other broadcasters, needs its subscribers to keep coming back to its platform in order to make money. It doesn’t need to pull in Super Bowl–size audiences for all of its shows, so long as they comfortably claim around two million viewers and keep everyone paying.

That is where podcasts come in.

Since their creation, podcasts have been something of a black box, with creators (and advertisers) knowing only how many people downloaded each episode. Beyond that, nobody really knew if users were listening all the way through a show, if they listened to the ads or whether all the effort was for naught.

Mindy Tucker / HBO

In December 2017, Apple launched a podcast analytics service, allowing producers to really analyze its listenership data for the first time. The title of Wired’s report on the subject sums up the findings pretty neatly: “Podcast Listeners Really Are the Holy Grail Advertisers Hoped They Would Be.”

The data, so far, has shown that listeners will sit through an average of 90 percent of an episode, don’t skip ads and are pretty patient. Panopoly CTO Jason Cox is quoted in Wired saying that there is no “optimal length” for a show either, and podcast listeners are flexible when it comes to form. The report also cites HeadGum’s Andrew Pile, who said that there are audiences “who listen to every word that comes out of [a host’s] mouth.”

Podcast listeners are patient, they’re loyal and they aren’t lurching for their iPhones to skip a 30-second mid-roll ad during an hour-long show. That’s the sort of audience that, HBO probably hopes, can be lured into forking out a little bit extra on top of their basic cable subscription. Not to mention that podcasts are becoming a proving ground for ideas and talent that broadcasters can cherry-pick from.

According to the podcast metrics, the 124 episodes of Pod Save America have been downloaded more than 175 million times in total. Some back-of-the-envelope math (175 million / 124 x 0.9*) means that each episode probably has a captive audience of around 1.2 million people. It’s not spectacular, but it’s the sort of easy numbers that would probably make plenty of HBO executives happy.

HBO also has to face down Netflix, a company that cribbed many of its moves from HBO’s playbook, from spending big to own the stand-up comedy space to launching a series of premium dramas. Last year, Quartz said that HBO “was once a leader in live comedy, but now only releases a handful of specials a year.” The cause for the downturn is that it “has been driven out of the market for A-list comedians by Netflix, which is spending lavishly on top-tier talent” like Amy Schumer, Dave Chappelle and Jerry Seinfeld.

The network has been no stranger to podcasts since it first hosted the TV version of The Ricky Gervais Show back in 2010. But now it appears to be embracing the format in a way that it hasn’t before, much like several other entertainment companies. After all, FX Networks is looking to adapt Welcome to Night Vale, while Amazon and Seeso (RIP) embraced Lore and My Brother, My Brother and Me. But we’ll have to wait to see how successfully these shows can draw in new audiences to TV … sorry, not TV, HBO.

*If you’re curious, 0.9 is to account for the fact that it’s thought that 90 percent of podcast content is listened to, and to make the figures a little more conservative.

NSA sent coded messages through Twitter

Spy agencies have a long history of using public outlets to deliver secret messages, such as numbers stations or cryptic classified ads. Now, however, they’ve adapted to the internet era. Both the New York Times and the Intercept have learned that the National Security Agency used Twitter to send “nearly a dozen” coded messages to a Russian contact claiming to have agency data stolen by the Shadow Brokers. Reportedly, the NSA would tell the Russian to expect public tweets in advance, either to signal an intent to make contact or to prove that it was involved and was open to further chats.

The tweets were sent throughout 2017. Some were the usual self-promotion, including advocacy for the FISA section authorizing the NSA’s warrantless mass surveillance. Others were slightly arbitrary historical facts, such as celebrating the 177th anniversary of the telegraph patent. It’s not clear how many of these messages were crafted just for talking to the Russian versus ordinary posts.

The social network communiqués didn’t amount to much. The NSA paid about $100,000 to the Russian in hopes of recovering Shadow Brokers data, but cut off the deal when he instead presented info claiming to link President Trump and associates to Russia. Only some of that information was verifiable, and the NSA was reportedly concerned this could be part of a Russian government campaign to sow chaos in the American administration.

It’s unknown how common this practice is, both on other social networks and from other agencies. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if there have been other instances. This lets intelligence bureaus orchestrate clandestine communications with little effort, and no way of knowing about the secret meaning (outside of leaks like this, of course) if you’re not directly involved.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: New York Times, Intercept

How To Make Notes and Reminders With Siri on HomePod

There are many commands that Siri can understand on the HomePod that make it super simple to take quick notes and set up reminders for later, which all sync to any iOS device connected to the smart speaker. As long as you allowed the HomePod access to Contacts, Messages, Reminders, and Notes in the initial pairing process, you’ll be able to ask Siri to do the commands in this guide.

First, make sure that your iOS device and HomePod are on the same Wi-Fi network, so that the Notes and Reminders apps get synced to the requests you make to Siri on HomePod. Then, check out the commands below that you can speak to Siri so you can create new notes and reminders on your iPhone or iPad.

Siri Commands for Reminders

The basic starter command for the Reminders app when speaking to Siri is “Hey Siri, remind me to…” After that, you can follow up with essentially any everyday task that you want to be sure to remember.

Reminders can be more specific, as well. You can add a specific time of day or future date when you want the reminder to appear as a push notification on your iOS device, and use places that are in your Contacts to set off a reminder.

• “Hey Siri, remind me to clean the kitchen.”
• “Hey Siri, remind me to tell Sam happy birthday tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.”
• “Hey Siri, remind me to pack for the beach Monday afternoon.”
• “Hey Siri, remind me to text Dad when I leave the house.”
• “Hey Siri, mark take out the trash as complete.”

If you have some pre-set lists in your Reminders app, you can also ask Siri to add items to it. One of the most common lists to create is one for “shopping,” and if HomePod is in your kitchen Siri can help you quickly build your shopping list. Siri can also help set up a new list if you want.

• “Hey Siri, create a new shopping list.”
• “Hey Siri, add bread to my shopping list.”
• “Hey Siri, what’s on my shopping list?”
• “Hey Siri, remove milk from my shopping list.”
• “Hey Siri, mark coffee as completed on my shopping list.”

Siri Commands for Notes

Similar to Reminders, Siri can create you a new Note through simple voice commands when you’re near your HomePod. If you already have a Note created, you can also add new text into it through Siri.

• “Hey Siri, add a note called birthday present ideas.”
• “Hey Siri, add iTunes gift card to my birthday present ideas list.”
• “Hey Siri, create a note called shows to watch.”
• “Hey Siri, add Parks and Recreation to my shows to watch note.”

At any time, Personal Requests can be deactivated on your HomePod by navigating to the Home app, tapping the arrow button in the top left corner, tapping your name, and then toggling off Personal Requests. When it is on, remember that as long as the HomePod and the iOS device are on the same network, anyone near the HomePod can create a Note and Reminder when speaking to Siri.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
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