However, something in the past episode (13) really grated on me and although it has been happening in previous episodes, it seemed worse in that one. What is it? It’s how the sponsorships are being pushed.

I know sponsorships are important for a show like this and I think what Jason is trying to do with changing things up a bit is a noble idea (and I’ll be interested to see how things turn out), but the amount it was pushed on the show really got to me this week.

The usual bit of mentioning the sponsors on twitter is a bit meh. I’d personally call it twitter spam – but it’s no worse than the retweet contests that happen, which I’ll admit I take part in. Most of the posts containing the sponsors names are fairly meaningless apart from getting the name out – which as an average person reading a tweet someone has posted, wouldn’t really offer much. As an alternative I’d propose:

Make a post to twitter about one of  oour sponsors and how you’ve benefited from their service and don’t forget to contain #TWIST.

The sponsor is getting their name out, Jason can still do his competitions, but there’s a bit more value there.

The extra thing done for promoting the film, was reasonable for a one-off. I just wish the discussion hadn’t dragged on for quite as long about how good the idea was.

However, pushing the same idea during the Audible ad seemed one step too far for me. Perhaps this is colliding slightly with the way that it is the presenter putting out the adverts (something I’ve only really got used to via watching podcasts as it doesn’t happen on UK TV), but it just seemed to be really pushing Audible on people. I don’t doubt it’s helping audible (assuming people aren’t just signing up for the freebies), but is it just that little bit too much for the average viewer? Especially with the discussion of the idea that followed after. Personally I’d rather have heard a good review/recommendation of a book.

Through the show as a whole, I think the number of sponsors is about right. I like how Audible is sponsoring the homework section (though I hope this isn’t going to stop a few movies appearing in this segment again). The length of time spent on these sponsorships is what I’m not so sure about. It’s not awful – not worse than you’re average TWiT advert, but  things just seem to be pushed harder in this amount of time – maybe this is just me though.

One thing I would request though is if we’ve spent so much time listening to different ideas for putting adverts across (twitter, offering freebies etc.), why not feedback to the viewers how well/poorly this has worked? Especially if you can get a sponsor to comment on it. It’s probably some ideal information for viewers who may be looking towards ideas for business models.

I’ll still be tuning into This Week in Startups – but that’s what I’m tuning in for – not for This Week in Sponsorships. Also, sorry sponsors, but I’m now more than likely going to be fast-forwarding through the adverts.. I’ll leave you to decide if this averages out as value-added from what I’ve seen so far, or value-lost from the future.

The main thing I’m waiting for is push notifications for applications – in particular for the Remember The Milk Application.

As a podcast listener, I have noticed a nice small update which seems to have been missed so far. When listening to a podcast, there are 3 new buttons available:

• an email this podcast – to send a link to the podcast
• a ‘Rewind 30 seconds’ button – incredibly useful if you missed the last bit due to an interruption
• A speed adjust button. I personally, wouldn’t make use of it, but I know a lot of people like listening to things at double speed (especially with audiobooks)

Now I just need to wait for the application updates…

For example, in the last couple of weeks I’ve been very busy – which has highly restricted the time I’ve had to watch or listen to them. My usual times are to watch when eating, or in an evening and to listen either when travelling or working. Being a lot busier recently, plus the addition of breaking my headphones (now replaced by SENNHEISER CX400), has led to me falling a reasonable amount behind.

To put this into perspectove, a couple of months ago, I got down to 30 unlistened to podcasts, at which stage I subscribed to a couple of new ones. I’m now up to 225 unlistened to podcasts (down from 250 earlier this week). Which leads me to this debate:

My current thoughts are to keep going and wait for the number to decrease. As it’s the Easter holidays I’m going to have more time to catch up (especially with the amount of work I have to do). But if I can’t get the numbers down, it will lead to some unsubscriptions.

Should I base what to unsubscribe on what I haven’t listened to in a long time, or podcasts where I already listen to a lot of similar content. Perhaps it should be videos which are usually very long. On the other hand a lot of my podcasts come from either TWiT, Revision 3, or The DPN (Disney Podcast Network) – perhaps I should limit myself to the number of podcasts I subscribe to from each of these networks, or just limit myself to these networks.

Has anyone faced similar problems?