Has Jupiter Broadcasting Gone Down The Pan?

23 Nov 2020 | ~2 minute read

I feel like Jupiter Broadcasting (link) have gone down the pan recently. The quality of the content they're producing hasn't gone down as such. Well, except for the fact that User Error & Choose Linux have gone. What I'm getting at here is the obnoxious amount of adverts that JB embed into their shows now they have divorced A Cloud Guru.

For example, I just listened to the latest Linux Action News, which is 29 minutes long. That episode includes two adverts. The first is for Linode, which is 3 minutes long (09:00 - 12:05), and the other for Ting which is 2 minutes long (20:35 - 22:35).

That's 5 minutes of adverts in a 29 minute show!

It feels like the same kind of ratio for Linux Unplugged too. I have no idea what it's like on Self Hosted, as I stopped listening to that show when it became clear that it's a show about home automation, not self hosting.

Other revenue streams?

The Jupiter Broadcasting folks have this core contributor thing which is $8/month and you get an “advert free” RSS feed for Linux Unplugged. I actually subscribed to that when they first announced it, but revoked my support after the first month.

That's because it isn't an advert free feed. The episodes still include adverts for A Cloud Guru. Also, if you want to get rid of the adverts from the other shows, good luck - the $8/month only covers you for Linux Unplugged.

Look, I get it. Chris and the team need to make a living, but I feel like ramming advert after advert down our throats and giving us no way to remove them isn't the best way of doing this.

I'm happy to show support with my wallet, but I refuse to pay for something that I fell is mis-sold snake oil. I'd much rather sign up for something like a $10/month Patreon tier where Patrons get access to all shows with a REAL advert free feed.

Conclusion

I'll end by summing up my position, as this post is a ranty mess:

• The “advert free” feeds that listeners pay for aren't actually advert free.
• Jupiter Broadcasting have removed some of the best shows they had from their line up. Namely User Error and Choose Linux.
• They appear to have added much longer adverts to their shows since diverging from A Cloud Guru.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh?

</rant>

• Notes