No Junk, All Joy*

We’re a loose group of comedy writers and producers. Millions of people listen to and love scripted comedy every week. A huge proportion of this is on BBC Sounds. The BBC, for various reasons, is making less and less new scripted content.

Listen & Often is our way of seeing if we can fill some of the gap. It’s for people who love the kind of shows we write and want more of them. By subscribing to Listen & Often, they help us put more of what they love into the world. Is that a virtuous circle? If it isn’t, then we don’t want to know what is.

Why are you going for subscribers instead of distributing it for free and paying for it using adverts?

A podcast based on scripted material by multiple writers and performers doesn’t work with an ad-based model. Or, to be more accurate, it only works on a very large scale.

But subscription is incredibly powerful. We don’t need millions of people. 2,000 people are all that’s needed to sustain the show and make 2-3 series of the James Pond-type every year. The more we get, the more shows we can make.

*We looked up successful online advertising slogans and this was the top one. It was for baby food.