Google lets users stream directly from search pages

Facebook to test selling video subscriptions

LOS ANGELES, Aug 10, (RTRS): Google says it’s making it much easier to find – and listen to – podcasts. The internet giant is now surfacing podcast episodes in search results based on an analysis of the topics in a given show, and will let users play back the podcast right from the results page.

All told, according to Google, its index now spans more than 2 million podcasts across the web. Now, when you search for a podcast about a topic on Google (such as “instant pot recipe podcasts”) show you playable episodes in search results alongside web pages, news, images and videos.

With podcasts today, “there’s a discovery problem,” said Zack Reneau-Wedeen, founder and head of product, Google Podcasts. “There’s stuff people want but can’t find it -- and that aligns perfectly with Google’s mission to organize the world’s information.”

Google won’t index the content of all 2 million-plus podcasts right off the bat. The new podcast search and streaming features are available initially for English in the US, and will expand over time. Eventually, Google search queries won’t even need to include the term “podcast” to return a list of relevant episodes.

Google has been slower to embrace podcasts than Apple, which introduced the Apple Podcasts as a default native app with the iOS 8 release in 2014 – a move credited with helping fuel the current boom in the podcast biz. The Apple Podcasts app accounted for about 63% of all podcast listening as of February 2019, according to App Annie data. The Google Podcasts app for Android, launched in June 2018, accounted for just 0.9%. To date, Google Podcasts for Android has over 5 million installs.

Features

Apple is also enhancing its podcast-search features by transcribing the words and phrases used in episodes – although those will initially be available only to Mac users.

This fall, Apple is doing away with the native iTunes app for the Mac with the release of macOS X 10.15 (code-named “Catalina”). Instead, the new operating system will include three dedicated media apps – for music, TV and podcasts. The Apple Podcasts app for Catalina will provide enhanced search, starting with top shows in English. Apple’s podcast search today relies on the metadata included with a podcast (i.e., show title, author, description).

Meanwhile, Google also announced that later this year, users will be able to find and listen to episodes on the Google Assistant and the Google Podcasts for web service (via Google Play Music). That will let users issue a voice command to the Google Assistant for podcasts about a certain topic, and it will suggest episodes for you related to your search. In Google Podcasts for web, you’ll be able to search for relevant shows and episodes and listen directly on your computer or phone.

Google noted that a user’s listening progress is synced across all of its podcast services, so you can start listening on the web then resume playback in the Google Podcasts app.

“Our goal is to double worldwide podcast listening, to not just make it easy to listen to podcasts on Android but make podcasts a first-class citizen on Google,” Reneau-Wedeen said.

Facebook is dipping its toes into the subscription VOD waters – as an aggregator and reseller.

The social giant is launching what it’s describing as a small-scale test to sell subscription VOD services directly to users. Initially, the Facebook video subscriptions will be available for four services: BBC and ITV’s BritBox, CollegeHumor’s Dropout, MotorTrend App and Tastemade Plus.

Idea

Last year, Facebook had reached out to TV networks including HBO and Showtime about the idea of selling their over-the-top streaming services on the platform. But for now, no traditional television channels are part of the test, nor are big SVOD players like Netflix or Hulu.

Facebook’s video-subscription test with the four initial partners will be available only to users in the US and will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

Facebook will process payments on behalf of the SVOD partners. The company declined to say whether it’s taking a cut of the revenue during the test period and if so, how much. In 2018, Facebook launched a Patreon-like fan-subscription service for creators; starting in January 2020, the company plans to start taking a cut of 30% of the revenue from new subscribers on desktop and up to 15% for subs paying through Apple or Google mobile app stores.

“We’re testing video subscriptions on Facebook, starting with a limited set of partners,” a company rep said in a statement. “We’re excited to bring more of people’s favorite shows and videos to Facebook, where subscribers can enjoy the content together with other fans. We’ll be listening to feedback from our community.”

In the future, Facebook said, it may add additional partners to the video-subscription platform.

Through Facebook, the subscription prices of each of the services are the same as through other platforms. The Tastemade Plus food-andlifestyle network is $2.99 per month. Priced at $4.99 per month are both CollegeHumor’s Dropout comedy streaming service and MotorTrend App (run under a joint venture with Discovery), which provides more than 7,000 episodes from car shows including classic episodes of “Top Gear.” BritBox, the UK television streaming JV of BBC and ITV, costs $6.99 monthly for a collection of dramas, comedies, soap operas, documentaries and other programming.

Facebook’s strategy – although just a baby step for now – is similar to the SVOD-aggregation play by Amazon and more recently copied by Apple and Roku.

In the US, Amazon’s Prime Video Channels lineup of 150-plus services include HBO, Showtime, Starz and CBS All Access, with subscriptions available to Prime members. Roku began reselling premium VOD subscriptions in January and Apple this spring launched an updated Apple TV app that lets users subscribe directly to such channels as HBO, Showtime, Starz, Epix, Tastemade, Sundance Now, CuriosityStream and Comedy Central Now.

Unlike Amazon, Apple or Roku, Facebook doesn’t have a connectedTV device, but it is reportedly prepping to launch such a product this fall that would include access to streaming apps.

Facebook’s video-subscription test is meant to springboard off Watch, the free, ad-supported episodic platform it originally launched two years ago. Watch had 140 million daily users worldwide as of June, with thousands of shows including Facebook-funded originals like Jada Pinkett Smith’s “Red Table Talk” and a reboot of MTV’s “The Real World.”