It’s been 5 years since TEN launched and in that time we’ve had support from both sponsors (advertising) and supporters (via Patreon). Patreon launched with six support tiers, and in mid-2017 a seventh was added along with an Ad-Free feed as a bonus. Two years ago the Patron tiers were tweaked to accomodate the now-defunct Breaker audio service. Today we’re going back to six tiers and for the first time ever, setting a goal. One that years ago I didn’t think would be possible to even consider.
We now have an Ad-Free goal on Patreon. How is this going to work?
If Patronage meets or exceeds this level ($300/month), sponsorship and advertising will be suspended for a minimum one year trial and if sustainable will be extended indefinitely. This would include no network advertising on the website, no advertising in the audio or in the show notes for all future episodes from that point.
…if sustainable…
The truth is that Patrons come and go, they are always free to do that anytime. Hosting costs and domain expenses go up, not down and good quality audio equipment is periodically required to be upgraded or replaced and every time I’ve checked that’s not getting cheaper either.
That said I’ve chosen the goal carefully with all of that in mind and if I can make it work for 12 months then it should be fine to extend it indefinitely. If this works out down the road, I’m considered re-releasing all episodes as ad-free backwards in time to day one: effectively scrubbing all advertising from TEN retrospectively.
Dual-Benefit
If this works out, then not only will listeners all benefit from ad-free material, but it also means less work when creating the shows themselves. In rough terms, the amount of time spent each year organising sponsorships, writing up ad-reads, recording and editing then following up with sponsors afterward, is about the same as two half-hour long episodes of Causality. There would be a single edit for each episode instead of two (one with Ads, one without) and hence no ads means more time for more content.
Thank you to everyone that is already a Patron for all of your support in making this an actual possibility. You’re all amazing!