About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

Analyst Weblog

« Trademark Protection Online | Brokeback Mountain and Keira Knightley- UK Favourites for Academy Awards »

Ricky Gervais Most Searched for Podcast

February 28, 2006

I heard the news a couple of weeks ago that The Ricky Gervais Show, a podcast that features conversations and interviews between Ricky Gervais, Stephen Marchant and Karl Pilkington, was entering the Guiness Book of World Records. As a loyal listener to the podcasts, I checked Hitwise data to see how the podcast compared in terms of searches and it seems that the Ricky Gervais Show is the most searched-for podcast in the UK.

The show was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after experiencing an average of 261,670 downloads a week during its first month (according to an article in Media Guardian). The 12th and final episode in the first series of the Ricky Gervais Show was broadcast on 20th February. The next day, Audible.com, a company based in New Jersey, announced that it would sell subscriptions to at least the next two seasons - at $1.95 per episode or $6.95 per season.

Among search terms that included the keyword 'podcast', 'ricky gervais podcast' was the second highest volume term, after 'podcast' (four weeks ending 25th February 2006). Four of the top 10 terms that include the keyword 'podcast' were searches for the Ricky Gervais Show. After the Ricky Gervais show, the next most searched for podcasts were Chris Moyles podcast, the popular BBC 1 presenter, and Faceless, the anonymous and titillating Kiss100FM podcast.

Interest in podcasts is growing in the UK. Whilst there was not a sufficiently high volume of searches for 'podcast' captured by Hitwise just one year ago, searches for 'podcast' have really taken off since June 2005. In the past six months, searches for 'podcast' have more than doubled (comparing week ending 27th August 2005 with week ending 25th February 2006). Most of that growth has come since September, perhaps coinciding with increased media attention to podcasts and increased use of MP3 players.

UK Searches for 'ricky gervais podcast' peaked two weeks ago, during the week ending 11th February 2006, the same week that the entry in the Guinness Book of World Records was announced.

Dubbed "the funniest man alive in Britain today" by Ricky Gervais, Karl Pinklington has turned into an online phenomenon. Prior to becoming famous online (largely a result of saying "I'd eat a knob at night", Pilkington was best known as the radio producer behind Ricky Gervais' show on Xfm. The share of UK internet searches for 'karl pilkingon' surpassed searches for 'ricky gervais podcast' last week, and were up 40% last week compared with the week prior. Searches for 'i could eat a knob at night' soared two weeks ago and continued to rise last week (see chart below).

Podcasts are a new medium with which media companies and others are experimenting. The business case to create and distribute audio files is not always easy to make. However, the decision by Audible.com to charge for subscriptions to the series indicates that there may be a commercial value to popular podcasts.

Also interesting, the term 'ricky gervais podcast' is the 7th highest term sending visits to www.guardian.co.uk. The term follows only brand terms (such as 'guardian' and 'guardian unlimited') and 'tv listings' in order of volume of visits sent to the site. This indicates that successful podcasts can also generate signficant traffic to a site.

Search Term Suggestion Report: Top UK Search Terms that Include the Keyword 'podcast' (four weeks ending 25th February 2006).
Podcast STS Report.png