Is podcasting a business?

I have a personal interest in podcasting and so Podshow’s recent $15M B-round definitely raised my eyebrows. Assuming that purchase was for 20% of the company, that’s pegging their valuation at about $75M. That implies that they think they will be worth $750M in 5 years. (These assumptions are just taking basic VC rules of thumb like a 10x return in 5 years and never sell more than 20% of the company at any given round).

Assuming that DAG Ventures is not stupid, this seems to indicate that Podshow may in fact be on to something. It must also mean that advertisers are happy with their podcast advertising ROI.

I always wondered how well a podcast audience responds to the right kind of advertising. This seems to indicate that people aren’t hitting the fast forward button (as I do).