Ricky Gervais Charging for new Podcast

Flushed with success from the last hilarious batch of The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, the team has decided to charge for the next lot. It's unsurprising since the series has just got the Guinness World Record thanks to its 2.9 million downloads. Season 2 (yes, we're talking in US "seasons" now)  will be available exclusively from Audible.co.uk and the iTunes music store, and you'll be able to catch the first episode on 28th February. It'll be £3.75 for the whole series or 95p a download. It's not entirely clear why the "season" is only going to be 4 shows when the last series was 12 - seems a bit stingey.

And if you haven't heard the original, hilarious, 12 shows, you can buy them from Audible for £2.75. My first response was to feel grumpy at being charged, but it's not really much to pay for 12 half hour shows of three people talking nonsense. Details from the press release after the cut.

From the press release
Like the first series, The Ricky Gervais Show features The Office and Extras co-writers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant gleefully bursting the bubble inhabited by Karl Pilkington, a village idiot of global proportions.

This project represents the first major transition from a free to a commercial podcast. Season 1 of The Ricky Gervais Show was free, but now Season 2 is available through a small subscription charge. In the light of 3 million downloads, Gervais jokingly lamented giving his show away for free in a recent podcast, saying: "I have been a fool." "As with The Office and Extras, the podcasts have been attracting some high profile fans such as Matt Groening creator of The Simpsons, Christopher Guest from Spinal Tap, JJ Abrahams, creator of Alias and Lost and even Jonathan Ive, inventor of the iPod." Ricky says "I find it hard to imagine what these living legends must think when they hear the ramblings of that little bald-headed Manc, Karl Pilkington." More about Ricky and the shows at www.rickygervais.com