2004
G’Day World goes live
In November 2004 we launched G’Day World — the first Australian podcast, recorded before most people had heard the word.
The history of TPN · 2004 — today
We launched in the dawn of podcasting.
Twenty-one years, a hundred shows, half a million listeners, one global financial crisis, a dark age — and an unlikely resurrection. Here’s how it actually happened.
I
The first era
The boom, the bust, the dark age.
2005
The world’s first podcast network
In February 2005 we launched The Podcast Network (TPN) — the world’s very first “podcast network”. A category that didn’t exist until we named it.
2007
100 shows. 500,000 listeners.
We did pretty well. By 2007 we had 100 shows in production and over half a million listeners. One of them — The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast — was the world’s first long-form podcast, telling Napoleon’s story over ~60 hour-long episodes.
2008
The advertisers vanish
Then the Global Financial Crisis hit and all of our advertisers disappeared almost overnight. We struggled on for a few more years.
2012
The servers go dark
On 19 June 2012 the TPN servers went dark. Many of the original shows have permanently gone to podcast Valhalla. Vale.
II
The second era
Then Caesar brought it back.
In August 2014, off the back of the unexpected runaway success of Life of Caesar, I decided to re-boot TPN.
In December 2014 we launched The Life of Alexander — one of the first 100% premium subscriber podcasts in history (as far as I know).
Today TPN is smaller and more personal. It hosts the shows I co-host now — Life of Caesar, QAV, A Cold War, The Renaissance Times and more — alongside the books and the film that came out of it all.
III
For the record
A modest list of firsts.
1st
Australian podcast · G’Day World
1st
Podcast network in the world
1st
Long-form podcast · Napoleon
1st
100% premium subscriber podcast
We’ve been first a lot. It’s not bragging if you’ve got the RSS feeds to prove it. Read the weekly roundup →