The popular Second Captains podcast is breaking up with long term partner The Irish Times and launching a new daily service starting next Monday, February 13th.
The team of Eoin McDevitt, Ciaran Murphy, Ken Earley, Simon Hick and Mark Hogan have been with the Irish Times since 2014 when they split away from Newstalk.
The show has consistently topped the download charts for podcasts on iTunes but they are now heading into a new model by introducing a payment for the daily service.
The main weekly Second Captains and Football Weekly podcasts will still be free of charge on a Monday but the daily service will now require a €5 monthly subscription.
There has also been a successful run of programming on RTÉ TV and into publishing via the Second Captains Annual which has helped to maintain their large following.
The challenge will be to build out a winning paid model in an environment where free content, or at least free to the consumer and paid through advertising or subsidy from other mainstream media has remained to the fore.
Read about the GAA’s Media Rights Deal from 2017 to 2021
Second Captains sits atop the download chart this morning but all the nine chasing them in the Top 10 in Ireland are downloadable for free.
SportsJoe.ie lies in Number Two with the Colm Parkinson, another spin out from Newstalk and Off the Ball while the show that built the original audience here for smart, irreverent sports audio content takes up five of the top ten spots.
The 42.ie Rugby Show, Football Weekly from the Guardian and The Sunday Supplement from Sky Sports complete the top ten.
It is likely that the small charge will be seen as payable by many within the target audience but apathy, the sometimes quirks of a paywall and the abundance of content in a similar zone that remains free to air will be a challenge.
There is a new website coming as well and that may add in extra benefits to a subscription. It is not yet known whether Ken Earley’s column in the Irish Times will remain or whether that too might move into the new Second Captains media world.
Last year Sport for Business hosted a popular Future of TV Sport event at the studios of RTÉ. We will shortly be announcing details of this year’s media focused event for sports and brands looking at the more diverse world of sports content.
Let us know if you are interested and we will be in touch shortly with details of this event
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