Do podcasts update their archives with new advertising?

February 12, 2023 1:06 AM

Is it common (or at least known) for podcasts to edit their old episodes, updating the adverts to the new sponsors?

I've started listening to a new podcast, starting from episode one (The Magnus Archives, in case anyone has first-hand knowledge).

The adverts are surprisingly contemporary. The podcast started in 2016, but I swear one of them had an advert for a film that only came out this year. I think a couple of them might have advertised upcoming events too. I'm used to archive-binges throwing up a lot of outdated ads and shifting sponsors.

So, is this a thing? Podcasts editing their old episodes to update the adverts? (It doesn't seem an awful idea.) Or have I gotten confused and jumped to conclusions?

posted by Lorc to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: Yes, this is a thing. I believe this is managed automatically by some podcasting services or platforms.
posted by lookoutbelow at 1:09 AM on February 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Podcasters work with advertising platforms and basically put breaks in the podcast for the ad network to insert ads (which may be recorded by the podcast host or may be produced separately, like a radio ad would). The ads are inserted when you download the podcast; they can also be targeted by the location of the download. I've had UK-based comedy podcasts with advertisements for a grocery chain that only exists within 40 km of my home in Canada.

It's not that different a model from when they would film an episode of like Friends or whatever, then ship the tape to the local station, who would insert some national taped ads and some local ones for Wacky Larry's Discount Vans in the specified locations of the show. The podcast never had the ad in it at all; in the same way that the Friends episode didn't have a specific ad inserted in it originally; it was added later (and changed each time the rerun aired.)
posted by Superilla at 1:19 AM on February 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’ve been relistening to Welcome To Night Vale, whose first episodes dropped in 2012, and for sure the opening and closings have been redone at least once since they were originally uploaded.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:35 AM on February 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s called dynamic ad insertion and yep it’s a thing.
posted by rhymedirective at 8:03 AM on February 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is not just common, it’s practically universal if the podcast is at all popular. And why wouldn’t it be? Reruns of old TV shows don’t have the original historical ads in them.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:51 AM on February 12, 2023

Meg Bashwiner from Welcome To Night Vale has in fact made reference to WTNV's dynamic ad insertion once or twice over on Good Morning Night Vale (the rewatch podcast with other members of the cast). Basically you upload multiple files, and the ads get inserted to stitch the pieces together, and if you make your segments too long for the sponsorship system you're signed up for, the tooling will find a pause or moment of silence before the timer runs out and clip the ad in there.

You'll notice this going wrong a lot on less polished podcasts like Starship Sofa. Sometimes the ad will go in mid-sentence, or it'll be shoved in between the end of the recorded story and the bumper segue-ing to the rest of the episode. Often a podcast with a pre-dynamic-ad-insertion back catalogue will find itself splintered with ad breaks in odd places.

I used to download podcasts over tor, and it was always fun when I'd get ads in Polish or Spanish. Lately it's interesting how much the ads assume that the listener is downloading live. I will catch up with my downloaded feed over weeks, and find alerts about a transport strike that ended last month, for example.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:02 AM on February 14, 2023

Personally I always employ the skip-ahead buttons on my podcast app (DownCast) to skip over the ads — I presume that’s what those buttons were created for.

(I’m excited for you to be beginning your Magnus journey, by the way! My kid turned her mom and me on to TMA last year and we devoured it, so good.)
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 9:44 AM on February 14, 2023