An open letter to the BBC: 
I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the BBC have ended the 'trial' podcast of the Now Show. I only listen to the Now Show via podcast, because that's the only way that is convenient for me. And I'm not the only one. According to various sources, the Now Show consistently does spectacularly well in the podcast rankings. I've often logged in to iTunes to see it high on the charts of most popular podcasts, so much so that it has been declared as the fourth most popular podcast on iTunes (and a 4 out of 5 rating after 55 reviews on iTunes UK - the few negative reviews are mostly because the podcast is no longer available).
I have no truck with scheduling and I absolutely abhor the RealMedia nonsense the BBC have set up on their site - which I find unreliable and close to unusable. I'd rather not listen to a show at all than have to listen to it using inconvenient technology or according to someone else's schedule. I enjoyed the Now Show, but regret that since the BBC have stopped making it available in a useful format (ie. podcast), I am compelled to stop listening to it.
I will not go out of my way to listen to a programme which tries to make it inconvenient for me to listen to it - there are plenty of other programmes produced by both the public and private sector as well as plucky individuals which see the benefit in podcast distribution. There's a whole universe of things which I can get delivered by RSS directly to my podcatcher. I haven't got the time or energy to bother going to the things which are made intentionally difficult to listen to. If everything you could possibly want is only one click away, why would you want to bother with things that are two clicks away?
The BBC have a very reluctant relationship with podcasting, which is extremely sad to see. Presenters often seem highly dismissive of it (Andrew Marr once dismissed the podcast audience of Start The Week as part of the 'non-literary culture' - which is quite amusing, since podcasting is only fancy technological glue to allow one to listen to what must be the equivalently non-literary culture of BBC television and radio on a computer or portable device), and the cancellation of the Now Show podcast seems part of that general attitude of reluctance to join the rest of the civilised world in distributing their media through a convenient format. Other public service broadcasters (including PBS and NPR in the United States), as well as commercial broadcasters like CNN, Channel 4, ABC and Sky News, have joined the podcasting fray a lot less reluctantly than the BBC. I understand that there are licence and IP issues which play in to the BBC's 'maybe-ish' relationship with podcasting, but it is not beyond an organisation of the BBC's size to sort out such issues if there were only a clear will within BBC management to do so. Actually, perhaps it is. Perhaps we have a collective delusion as licence payers that the BBC are competent of understanding even relatively straight-forward ideas like "making it easier to listen to things means more people will listen".
The opening up of podcast feeds for even the tiniest smattering of BBC content is one of the few things that has signalled that the BBC has not been totally destroyed by the Internet (the iPlayer is going to be pretty much dead-on-arrival and the Creative Archive might be interesting if it happens this side of the year 2497). I've said it before, and I'll say it again - you guys should be singing from the hilltops that you are still relevant for an Internet age. Yet again, the BBC have proved itself to be totally insignificant and superfluous in the Internet age - mismanaged, lost and irresolute.
Perhaps the BBC could call me in fifteen years time if you've got your shit together and realised what is so obvious to everyone under the age of about 65. This, for me, is the nail in the coffin for the BBC's relevance in an age where the Internet eclipses everything (which it most definitely has). Back in the Middle Ages, betting against the Catholic Church was not a smart move. Today, betting against the Internet is an even stupider move. The BBC have done just that.
Whatever next? Maybe the HTML Working Group will suggest that we ought to keep the FONT tag. Oh, wait... 
Tags: bbc, podcasting, podcast, incompetence, mismanagement, delusion of adequacy, now show, the now show, idiocy, mind-bending stupidity
