Wizzard Software announced today the acquisition of a second podcasting company, Blast Podcast, an podcast advertising and hosting service provider. Previously, Wizzard announced an agreement to purchase Switchpod.com, a podcast hosting service.

Wizzard plans to combine its experience in the area of speech recognition technology into Blast Podcast’s business plans. Wizzard will incorporate its server-based speech recognition technologies into the BlastNetwork, which will create a transcript for each audio and video podcast. This feature should help advertisers and listeners find relevant podcasts based on the content of each podcast episode, simplifying the search process and providing a more targeted audience for the sponsor.

Blast Podcast provides their clients with branding and advertising opportunities, in addition to real time statistics, and simple feed and file management, all without bandwidth fees and hosting costs. Blast Podcast and their publishers can earn revenue from sponsorships of their podcasts.

“We are building a podcasting environment in which our podcast creators can thrive,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Software CEO. “We believe that Blast Podcast’s approach to the marriage of podcast creators with advertisers is unique and will allow podcasters to monetize their content without offending their listeners, a critical component to the future of podcasting.”

“The acquisition of Blast Podcast is another important piece to the puzzle for Wizzard’s entrance into the podcasting market,” said Gordon Berry, Director of Business Development for Wizzard Software. “We see great value in the proprietary advertising technology that Blast Podcast has developed and our plan is to build upon their concept by incorporating Wizzard’s world class speech technologies, which we believe will create even greater successes for both the podcasters and the advertisers.”
Blast Podcast has developed a revenue-sharing program to help their podcasters earn profits through ads placed in their podcasts as well as allow advertisers to target relevant market segments to increase their campaign effectiveness. The BP Ad Engine, Blast Podcast’s technology, matches publisher content against data provided by advertisers for their specific market segments.