Business model innovation processes in the South African podcasting industry

Abstract

In 2004, British broadcaster Ben Hammersley, for his article Audible revolution in The Guardian, was looking for a word to describe the rapid growth of online radio (Bottomley, 2015). As a result, Hammersley landed on the term ‘podcasting.’ It was only a decade later, in 2013 and 2014, that the podcast industry started to take off. Apple had reached 1 billion podcast subscribers and Serial, a true crime podcast, gained immense popularity (Rime et. al, 2022). Since then, the term ‘podcasting’ has become popular in most parts of the world. The study sought to understand the application of business model innovation (BMI) frameworks and processes in the South African podcasting industry. Specifically, the study examined the key factors that have helped Podcast and Chill with Mac G (and other mainstream South African podcast creators) reimagine how value is created and captured in the South African podcasting industry. Moreover, the study examined the mechanics of business model innovation and identified the internal and external factors that have influenced innovation, and how these factors interact with one another. Finally, the study sought to understand what the barriers for innovation have been for these platforms, and how creators have responded to them.