Hoping to gauge likely ad rates for a nascent podcasting market, Podtrac on Tuesday launched a podcast ad auction online. Podtrac will charge advertisers on a CPM basis, the revenues of which will be
divided between Podtrac and participating podcast publishers--Podtrac will retain 25 percent. Podtrac is working with research firms Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) Global and Mediamark Inc. to collect
demographic data and audience size. Participating podcasters include those currently or recently in the iTunes Top 100 such as: Channel Frederator, Comedy 365, Distorted View, Escape Pod, Flash TV,
French Maid TV, IndieFeed, Inside Mac, MuggleCast, Josh in Japan, Next Big Hit, This Week in Tech, and VOD Cars, among others. The auction will run through March.
--Gavin O'Malley
