It a stat-a-riffic week, I suppose. BuzzMachine pointed out the new Neilsen Study relating to podcasts. BuzzMachine included some highlights, such as 9.2 million users have downloaded a podcast recently, along with 5.6 million downloading a video podcast.

In probably what is the first “big” video blog defection/move/breakup, Amanda Congdon has left (or been fired from) popular video blog Rocketboom (click on the links - the story does shift depending on which side you look at).  In the world of video blogs - where often the sucess of the show rests not just on the content, but on the relationship the viewers feel they have with the host (something Congdon excelled at) - this will be interesting to watch. Will Rocketboom stay Rocketboom without Amanda Congdon? (Just as “Would Ask a Ninja be the same if they replaced him with another Ninja?”)

Wired has an article discussing the one year anniversary of iTunes launch of their podcasting capabilities.  While it seems that many podcasters feel iTunes had a hand poularizing podcasting, there are mixed opinions on what that’s done to podcasting as a whole.  On chief complaint is that the more shows iTunes catalouges, the harder it is to grow an audience when competing with so many other podcasts.  In addition, Leo Laporte of This Week in Tech is quoted saying that 80% of his suscribers now use iTunes, effectly putting podcasting in Apple’s hands when it doesn’t need to be.

In addition, Wired highlights some interesting metrics involving podcasting from the recent eMarketer study (both current and projected stats), as well as some statistics from Feedburner that indicate that an average Mom and Pop podcasts - the podcasts that never make it to the front page of iTunes, for example, have far less listeners than the “big guys.” That being said, my own experience with podcasting, podcasters and podcast listeners indicate that even small numbers of subscribers can be active participants in the two-way conversation that is podcasting - via email, voicemail, monetary contributions, ideas, content and more. If further expanding podcastings listener base involves more iTunes-style launches, I’d certainly like to see the other big players  (Windows Media, are you listening?) - and not so big players - incorporate podcast capabilities as well.

This American Life podcast policy gets some to do some…really bad math - really interesting in light of the “NPR’s podcasts are doing great.” The NPR sucess has probably hurt the perception of some other public radio type shows, like TAL. (Boing Boing)

MySpace limits teen/adult interaction (Wired)

Netflix & Digital Downloads - will they be first? Or late to the game? (CNET)

“Podvertising” (or sponsorship) works over at NPR (Micro Persuasion)

Social Networks, Business Models and Trust (GigaOM)

Web 2.0: What Will be Different? (Marketing Shift)

PerSecond Podcast - Advertising by the Second (Micro Persuasion)

Microsoft Introduces Contextual Email Advertisements (AdJab)

Adverblog has a great story about a UK paper (City AM) that is delivering podcasts via Bluetooth. They call the initiative - and I agree - “an explosive mix of technology (bluetooth), media (mobiles + outdoor) and content (podcasts).” This is one of those exciting experiments that I hope really works - because the prospect of being able to mix media in this manner - especially out in the open - is just such an interesting idea and one I plan to follow.

One of the biggest kerfuffles in podcasting right now is about the lack of podcasting support in Windows Media Player 11. Some (like Geek News Central) were pretty scathing regarding the lack of podcast support after a year of iTunes support - saying that “their inaction will slow the growth of podcasting in a big way.” Others (like notably Robert Scoble) think that the lack of podcasting will slow WMP 11’s growth instead.

I have to agree with Scoble. I think that Microsoft may see WMP users who learn about - and want to listen to - podcasting switching to a player that does support podcasts. During my time off last week, I introduced someone to podcasting who has only ever used Windows Media Player - and was suprised to learn WMP doesn’t support podcasting. Their choice was to either not listen to podcasts, or to switch to iTunes in order to download podcasts (or use both until it gets to be too cumbersome).

As mentioned a few weeks ago, iTunes is offering pdf files for download for your iPod. Building on this offering, AdJab reported today that Lexus and Slate are offering “Textcasts” of the days headlines that can be viewed on a video iPod. While it is an interesting offering (and one I was excited to learn about) I agree with AdJab that looking at text on the wee little screen might be a strain on the eyes. At the same time, the rumors of the larger screen video iPod may make these an easier read.

Apple starts offering PDF enclosures as part of the podcast service (Micro Persuasion) (As an aside, if you didn’t know that you could put PDFs on your iPod, you can find a handy tutorial here)

Blog sharing service “Share your OPML” goes live (CNET)