Introducing Kim and Mary. Kim explained that “The Comb isn’t the first BBC podcast, the mother ship focus on Africa has been publishing a daily podcast since 2007 so way back”.
Kim gave some background on the recent rise of podcasts in Africa especially focusing on people’s stories.
Combing the content is the tagline and the The Comb is very focused on people and their lives.
Mary gave some information on the podcast market in Africa and how they gathered information about markets. She gave a view of platforms, technology and listening habits including handset usage.
For podcasters the section they play when the carried out research on what people in Africa were asked “What is a podcast” is excellent and gives a feel of where the markets of Africa currently are.
The outlook for the future of this market is good with increased technology use, 65% of the population will have access to a mobile phone in the next 5 years. Also young audiences plus a creative young population is expanding the offering of podcasts in Africa.
Mary described the larger team within which The Comb sits and how this team supports the work they are doing. She also said that The Comb is offering a distinct and new type of listening experience with weighty journalism with a high production value.
Both spoke about where the stories come from, the tone of the podcast and the thought behind the music, the artwork and the audience.
The audience is not only African, the target group for this podcast is students for many reasons and this also focuses the content of the podcast. These include different and varied topics which look at all aspects of the student experience and a time of life.
They also spoke about growing the community around the podcast, listening to listeners and taking the feedback to create content around listeners.
“It’s an exciting time for us to be part of this growing market” is the take away from this session.