Worried for TWIG

That was for TWiT???

I’d pay $100/year for TWiT especially if it meant if I didn’t it would go away.

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Remember Paul Allen threw in the towel on us many years ago. Our numbers did not support that business model. I know we are comparing apples to oranges, however I still believe its worth keeping in mind.

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@Leo
I think 60 replies in a few days shows our passion for this network.:heart:

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I’m happy with the ad-supported model, especially as I’m not in a position to subscribe to anything. Also I actually enjoy the ads on the network. Leo and the other presenters have the ability to deliver an ad script as an engaging and spontaneous-sounding aside, rather than the wooden delivery of the exact same words I’ve heard on other networks. That’s why I’m happy to listen to ads on the TWiT network, for me it’s always interesting to see how an ad will be presented this time round.

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I can just see some Madison Ave exec trying to justify his budget to his Boss. “And what kind of demographics do we have from TWiT ? Well none really. YOUR FIRED! next”

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Well… if EVERYBODY paid it wouldn’t be more than $2 per YEAR. But that’s the problem. Even NPR reports that only 5% of listeners subscribe.

If 5% of our listeners subscribed we’d need about $40 per year. Still very reasonable. And maybe even doable.

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Well that’s encouraging.
I’d pay $40 per year. Even more.

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Even on my limited budget I would pay 40$ a year

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I’d for sure pay more than $40 a year. So worth it.

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@Leo
Some viewership numbers have been thrown out here. Just curious. Does TWiT have a larger audience than CNN?

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I don’t think most people watch. So you’re wanting to compare the number of people that listen to TWiT versus the number of people who watch CNN ?

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Oh we’re nowhere near CNN size. But we are bigger than TechTV was. :crazy_face:

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Honestly I’ve always thought TWiG should be renamed to something like “This Week in Internet” or “This Week in Web”, sure not everything discusses is web-based since many of these companies also do non-web stuff like hardware but everything discussed does revolve around companies who are web-focused and it’s still more broad than just Google.

Regarding subs, I don’t think they would get enough to be 100% user-funded most likely, ads would still cover most revenue. Technically it already exists considering the monthly options on the Tip Jar page, I think the issue is merely people don’t know about it cause it’s buried. Simply mention once per show (likely during the outro when the host is saying stuff like the live air times and where to watch) something like “If you would like to support this show and other’s on the TWiT network, consider contributing to our Tip Jar at twit.tv/tipjar” (the current URL is actually https://twit.tv/about/tip-jar but you would want it shorter for spoken use). That would make people actually know about it’s existence which would lead to at least some donations while also not annoying everyone from asking too often.

I don’t even really think you would have to offer any Perks like Patreon but if you really wanted to, the easiest would be just to cut out the ad segments but that likely would take up a lot more storage to host ad-free versions of every show. One possible solution would be to handle it dynamically on the player side (so say you are watching on the website and an ad runs from 2:00 to 3:00, the player would auto-skip that timeframe using timecodes provided by the editor on your backend) but of course, that would require people to have to use players you guys develop like your website or a mobile app to work, it would be impossible to make that work on apps like Pocket Casts which isn’t ideal either.

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One of my problems is, as a non-US resident, is that a lot of the advertising is irrelevant to me.

There are some products I’ve bought over the years, based on @Leo 's recommendation, but I’ve had to buy them without the TWiT recognition/discount, because the offers weren’t open to non-US listeners.

I tend to listen to new adverts, but repeats, especially for US-only offers, I’ll skip over.

Because of this, I’d be more than happy to pay $40 a year for my TWiT fix.

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Ha! I had no idea the tip jar still existed.

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Are there some ways of listening to / watching TWIT shows that are better than others? That is, does the “count” on viewership get missed with certain view methods? I seem to remember that a subscription to the podcast has a better, more tangible view count than a view on YouTube. Maybe a shift in how we watch could help the numbers and thus help the bottom line.

Also, how exactly is the TWIT Network advertised? I am a dinosaur from the TechTV days and have followed Leo ever since. When I mention the network to my friends, they typically haven’t heard of it. What’s being done to grow the “Army”? How can we / I help in that regard in addition to word of mouth?

TWIG is my favorite show with All About Android as a very close second.

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If you download or stream an episode from your podcatcher app (Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Downcast, Overcast, etc.) then you’re getting counted in the numbers we report to advertisers. We also count listens via TuneIn, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Spreaker, Stitcher, and other similar services. YouTube viewers also get counted. The only audience that is NOT counted are the live viewers. However, the live views are usually a fraction of the overall audience.

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I absolutely love this show. It and security now are the highlights of my week and I think Stacey, Jeff, Ant, and Leo have great chemistry when talking about all the topics. The Googleverse is all encompassing :slight_smile:

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I didn’t know live listeners are not counted. I’ve been doing that for some shows - Macbreak Weekly, This Week in Google, Security Now and Windows Weekly as it has tied in well with my commute to work and working in the mornings. Think I’ll stick to the downloaded version for now as I get dropouts along the train line anyway so end up missing some chunks.

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@Leo so how much would a spot be for the fans to buy :wink:

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