Channel 4 and SE to help Scots podcasters POD-PLAN: TRAINING

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Mar 25, 2007 | by Steven Vass

CHANNEL 4 and Scottish Enterprise are launching a scheme to train five Scottish companies in podcasting.

The companies chosen for the scheme, known as Pod-Plan, are Glasgow Asian community radio station Awaz FM; Glasgow production companies Clarity and Sigma Films; Edinburgh new media company Fifty Nine; and Dundee music magazine, Clash.

The five will receive four days of podcast training from Inner Ear, the company behind Glasgow internet radio station Radio Magnetic. They will then receive support over a longer period.

Despite outsourcing the training, Channel 4 sees itself as being at the forefront of podcasts, audio or video downloads. The channel's most popular podcasts to date have included the Jon Snow- presented Snowmail, Jimmy Carr Live and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

Pod-Plan falls under the broadcaster's 4Talent Scotland initiative, which provides training to small companies across the creative industries. Channel 4 does not necessarily expect anything in return for its efforts.

Stuart Cosgrove, head of Channel 4 nations and regions, said: "Pod-Plan is just one of a range of initiatives being delivered through 4Talent Scotland, which aims to help Scottish companies embrace new media technology to explore new markets and exploit global opportunities." Despite coming in for heavy criticism lately for increasingly tasteless commercialism, Channel 4 also pointed to favourable research findings in TV regulator Ofcom's annual review of public service television last week.

The research showed viewers saw the channel as the most likely to show different cultures and opinions and more likely to be valued by ethnic minorities than white viewers. Observers will be watching to see what effect this has on the initial conclusions of Ofcom's review of Channel 4, which is due in the coming days.