Podshow charms the moneylenders, but will its JV with BT charm the UK public?

Podcast aggregator Podshow.com is definitely having its 15 minutes—or should that be $15 million??—of fame. This week it received a second series of funding worth some—yes, you guessed it—$15 million, from a group of investors that include Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Ram Shiram and Jerry Newman plus a mystery lead investor, according to this article. (A first round of funding last year, from the same four named investors, raised $8.85 million.)

Podshow currently contains some 60,000 podcasts, which range from original content created by Joe on the street, to vintage radio broadcasts. Of course, like most other social networking sites, Podshow is not yet making any money. But the allure for investors is that it will be the next YouTube or MySpace or FaceBook, becoming the object of desire for a large media property because it has captured the hearts and minds of millions of users.

This is apparently what BT hopes, too.

The UK’s incumbent telephone operator, which is getting ready to launch BT Vision, its digital television service, earlier this month announced that it would be creating a UK version of the Podshow site, called the BTPodshow.

Unlike the US site that contains lots of archival footage, the BTPodshow will kick off in a few months’ time with original content, most of which it hopes will be created by the UK public at large. The company is currently trying to get people to register on the site and submit their own podcasts into the mix. (I have to say, however, that I’d be surprised if ‘wacky’ letters like the one I received actually entice many people to make BTPodshow the next G-spot of reality TV.) NB. The Adam and Ron who sign the letter I suppose are Adam Curry and Ron Bloom, creators of the Podshow.

I got in touch with BT’s press office to ask if by any chance BT was the fifth mystery investor into the Podshow funding—the answer is no. But a spokesperson gave me a little bit of info on the terms of the agreement: Podshow and BT hope to make money on the project by sharing revenues from advertising and ‘other income sources.’ ‘It's not a license deal,’ he continued. ‘We're partnering to do this in the UK with BT providing the networking / data and to a certain extent the brand equity part, and Podshow providing pretty much everything else centred around editing / creating the programming.’

BT of course has incumbent advantage in the case of phone services, and despite their decreasing market share, they may keep ahead of the pack with their broadband offerings too. And although many a person likes to whinge about BT, they’re still top dog.

But it’s as yet unproven whether that branding juggernaut will help them in the arena of content delivered over those connections. Strong brands don’t necessarily always win out when it comes to creating business in the new media age—just ask ESPN, who had hoped its large base of cable watching sports fanatics would be ready and willing customers for its groundbreaking mobile phone service. But market forces proved them wrong.

Meanwhile, BT’s inking deals with lots of other big names for BT Vision. Other recent partnerships have included deals with Emap for music and Future Publishing for listings; and there are also some deals inked with Dreamworks, Warner Music, BBC and NBC Universal.