Steve Jobs making some real good moves with Podcasting - Very Smart

Steve Jobs making some real good moves with Podcasting - Very Smart - Ad Age Story on Podcasting (registration required)

I see my PodTech.NETwork going down the path of not only providing content but becoming a vehicle to enable folks to podcast on their own - to create their own channels for long tail consumption....  an open source media network that enables voices to be heard and for people to form groups and relationships in a kind of "social grid"... this shifting is so exciting...we'll see how the market develops...for now I'm focused on being open and getting great content produced.

for folks not wanting to register here is the ad age story below...

Podcasting comes home to the mother ship as Apple and the Sundance Channel announce a deal that will make content from the cable network exclusively available as podcast downloads from the Apple iTunes Web site. 

Radio-like content
The partnership with Sundance gives iTunes one of its first exclusive podcast partners and inches Apple's iTunes operations -- originally created as a music distribution hub -- toward becoming a broader, radio-like media entity.

In March, approximately 1.7 million U.S. households downloaded a song from iTunes, according to a study by NPD Group.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been personally publicizing the new podcast-enabled version of iTunes, due out in July. At Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer’s Forum in San Francisco he called podcasts “the hottest thing going on in radio.”

Mr. Jobs said the new iTunes will make it easier for audiences to create and distribute digital recordings, with a directory of podcasts, a registry for podcast creators and an editorial service that identifies the best podcasts. He also didn’t rule out charging for premium content.

Al Franken
One of the first iTunes podcast features scheduled from the Sundance Channel will be The Al Franken Show, featuring the Air America talk show host.

For the budding Sundance network, the iTunes deal offers a potentially potent way for promoting Mr. Franken's show, one of its most-hyped programs. Additionally, a collection of video clips from the show will also be available for streaming at Apple.com.

Sundance Channel, a premium cable network jointly owned by NBC Universal, Robert Redford and Viacom’s Showtime Networks, also benefits from the barter deal by receiving Apple’s post-production editing equipment and expertise -- a partnership that began when the network broadcasted from the Sundance Film Festival.

Like-minded brands
“For us Apple is absolutely a like-minded brand in the way they position themselves,” said Kirk Iwanowski, senior vice president for marketing at Sundance. He cites Apple’s “Think Different” campaign and the Sundance Channel’s independent streak as evidence of their compatibility. “We like the idea of identifying a like-minded consumer brand and partnering with them from a programming and marketing standpoint.”

In the future, Mr. Iwanowski said collaboration at the retail store level may occur as well. He envisioned Mr. Franken serving apple pie at the Genius Bar (Apple's Gap-like retail sores) -- Mr. Franken's current All-American campaign features him with the national dessert -- while Apple experts offer a case study presentation on the post-production equipment used in editing his show.