I'm not a particularly huge fan of Giant Bomb. Sure, I do enjoy their video content and their podcast, the Giant Bombcast, is very entertaining- but that's just about it. Their opinions rub me the wrong way, their fanbase is far too obnoxious and praising...but I do quite like the other Whiskey Media sites. What's this got to do with anything, you may enquire?
Whiskey Media is starting up a subscription program across all its sites - with two models. For $4.95 US, you get a monthly subscription, access to HD Video Content, an exclusive HTML 5 mobile site and access to a live show on Fridays and premium profile content. For $50 US a year, you get all the above, plus no ads, $10 in savings (their words) and a custom T-shirt.
I'm not going to get into why Whiskey Media should be charging for this - there have been plenty of examples of websites charging for "premium" content and have had plenty for the people who don't want to pay and still have a great experience (IGN, for example). However though, this does affect one of the core WM elements that is honestly quite disturbing.
On the Giant Bomb side (via NeoGAF), their Bombcast will actually affected adversely. If you're a paying member of WM, you get access to the full Bombcast (usually which lasts around two hours). If you're not a paying subscriber, then what'll happen is that you'll get the first half of the episode, and then a week later, get the second half for free.
Put simply, that is a fucking horrible business decision.
Let's consider this from a number of angles. With gaming podcasts, timing is everything. News is very easily datable. There's always something new to cover and you can't really fall behind. By splitting the show in two and giving a week delay for the people who don't want to pay, they miss out on timely content. Admittedly, there are reports that they'll try limit the time-sensitive material, but at the same time, that'll still affect the podcast.
But what really gets to me is the sense that the only way to get a full show is to be a paying member. This isn't one of those sense of entitlement types of deals here - but a matter of telling their audience (which although I don't have numbers, is surely bloody high) that the ONLY way to enjoy a full show is to pay for it.
There are plenty of podcasts out there that ask for donations. Not aggressively, but at least have the option that if you like the show, you can give as much as you want - I've never come across a single podcast that's ever asked that if you want a complete show, you need to be a subscriber. Sure, there are things like the Ricky Gervais podcasts, but he barely does them, and the less said about him the better.
As well as that, paying doesn't exactly give you that much of a bonus if you just want to listen to the Bombcast. For everything else, you at least get higher quality video or no ads, which is something. Here, it's not like you get a super special high quality audio file or even bonus outtakes.
Though at least there's something good to come out of this. Whiskey Media's offering (via Twitter) to make the Bombcast free to everyone, should they get 5,000 paid members by September 10th, 10am PST. We'll know soon enough if it works.
Otherwise, it's a fucking terrible decision, and I hope to hell they recant on this.
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