NOT the Majority Opinion

How quick will politicians be to utilize this new way of communication?

Suddenly, it seems, podcasting has broken through to a new level. The BBC's first published podcast chart reveals that the Radio Four Today programme's main interview was downloaded more than 400,000 times last month, second only, among BBC programmes, to Radio One's Chris Moyles Show. But the real change is in the way other media groups are now using podcasts to challenge broadcasters such as the BBC.

Last week, The Guardian newspaper announced that the Ricky Gervais Show had been downloaded over two million times, having already topped the Apple iTunes download charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Now other media owners are racing to get into the audio business.

After the Gervais podcast on Guardian Unlimited, the Conservative leader David Cameron popped up in the new Daily Telegraph podcast. Two days later, it was Tony Blair, podcast by The Sun, which said it was as significant a breakthrough as the first radio broadcast by a prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald in 1924.

Then last Friday, Jon Snow appeared in Channel 4's first podcast, a documentary about cannabis and the young.