It might take a while to resume the TED face-to-face talks in serious form, but you are in the process of figuring out some kind of alternative. The Verge notes that TED has reached an agreement to offer Clubhouse exclusive drop-in audio chat. The first, the weekly series Thank Your Ass Off, will be released on the platform on July 12th at 11 a.m. Eastern.
The agreement allows TED to sell ads and sponsorship for its talks. Clubhouse will also take no part. It’s not clear if the chats will be available as podcasts or other on-demand recordings, although it’s not surprising if there is a way to listen later.
TED already has a thriving podcast business with over 1.65 million episode downloads per day.
This is a logical arrangement for Clubhouse, where some of the more philosophical conversations have already been compared to TED conversations. Keeping the clubhouse relevant in the face of tougher competition is also a smart move. Clubhouse’s NFL deal lost some of its thunder in the face of the league’s Twitter Spaces chats. The TED pact is taking back some of that, even if the audience doesn’t quite agree with American football.
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