This is the reason why you just cannot create dynamic ads if you want to stick to the standard RSS+client approach (like iTunes).

Some of the podcasters have started actually building their own native apps to have better control of the content they emit, but it comes with reduced visibility. This is why most of podcasters still release their stuff through iTunes, but invite the listeners to download their app.

As far as cached mp3s that are already downloaded, I don't see why that should have a huge impact on ads. The most important episode for advertising purposes is probably the most recent episode, and if someone pulls an archived mp3 that should have the new ads too. As for already-downloaded, cached mp3s you just gotta let those go.

I find the advertising inside podcasts also particularly annoying. You can't ignore them by looking away like you would on a screen.

Maybe we need an adblock for podcasts (even if it will be difficult to automize -> some manual stripping of the parts where they are promoting stuff)

Really? Most podcast apps replace the skip buttons with "jump forward/back 15/30 sec". Hitting a button twice is too much effort in exchange for getting content for free?

Thanks, but no sale.

Maybe you're just not the target market for ad-funded podcasts.

It would remove pre-recorded/repeated ads in the middle (assuming that's what cutaway means), but wouldn't be able to remove live reads. It would also remove intros/exits.

Without manual validation, it probably wouldn't be a good model for identifying and removing ads from podcasts, especially using a "repeated in multiple podcasts" model, which doesn't start with known ads.

Crowdsourcing? See if a lot of people skip over certain fragments of an episode and mark it as "advertisement". Granted, this requires some level of cooperation from podcast player applications.

Get headphones with forward/back buttons on them. As soon as the ads start it's one or two quick taps on a button by my neck and I'm back to the podcast.

I just skip the first 2-5 minutes of most podcasts and the last 1-3 minutes and pray they don't have ads in the middle.

I've personally thought about a paid platform where users subscribe to the podcasts they like best and get the perk of avoiding ads since they're contributing to the podcasts creators

I'm not too bothered with these, as compared with the type of adverts you'd find on commercial television or radio, they're not that annoying and usually relevant to the podcast subject matter. If they started playing multiple irrelevant adverts back to back, with accompanying audio compression, then I'd be upset about it.

Podcasts aren't expensive to produce at a basic level, it's mostly just the hosts sitting around and chatting on skype for an hour every week or two. I'm only aware of one podcast I listen to that frequently asks for contributions, and that's mostly because the hosts have found they work best when they're physically co-present and have to fly one of the hosts out every month to record a bunch of shows all at once.

> I'm not too bothered with these, as compared with the type of adverts you'd find on commercial television or radio

Yeah, I agree. When the parent discussed adverts before I was thinking of the more commercial radio type. I think it's an effort to try to monetize podcast audiences, but at least for me I'm able to find more content than I can listen to, run by hosts that aren't all that interested in turning their hobby into a money making venture.

Luckily with the podcasts I'm subscribed to most of the sponsors tend to be relevant to the actual shows. The only irrelevant sponsor I recall is Ting (a Canada-based US mobile provider I think).