NAB 2018: Producers Look for Podcasts For Potential Big Hits

For years, film studios have adapted books and comics to the screen with wild success.

Now, producers of television shows and movies are searching popular podcasts for their potential next big hit, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

There are more than a dozen TV shows on air or in production that have started off as a podcast, including ABC’s “Alex Inc.”, a series about a father who decides to start his own business.

“There are some wonderful stories to be mined as more and more people discover podcasts,” Zach Braff, producer of “Alex Inc.”, told an audience of around 400 Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters convention.

The NAB Show has made podcasting, one of the fastest growing broadcast segments, a key focus this year. The show features several panels and a pavilion dedicated to podcasting.

Podcasts can be produced in a professional or makeshift studio. Most podcasts are started by individuals with a passion for a particular topic.

The lack of strict standards for how podcasts are to be produced — and their relatively low production costs— are giving rise to some creative programs that can make it to screen, said Matt Tarses, executive producer and writer of “Alex, Inc.”

“TV gets watered down” by the industry’s own rules, Tarses told the crowd. Podcasters “are trying new stuff. They all have this authentic truth to them.”