The ground breaking podcast Serial, which has almost single handedly revived the long form audio documentary and drama genre, is breaking new ground again.

The second series of the podcast will be available exclusively on Pandora, in a deal done between the producers and the streaming service.

Serial is a weekly podcast from the creators of This American Life that follows one story – a true story – throughout an entire season.  Season 1, an investigation of a Baltimore murder, launched in October 2014 and drew rave reviews, becoming the most popular podcast ever.

It is estimated that the podcast had 40 million downloads by the end fo 2014.

Serial‍ ’​s launch was sponsored by MailChimp, a frequent podcast advertiser, and salaried staff positions were initially funded by US public radio station WBEZ.

Podcasting is becoming more popular, especially in America, where production companies with well-listened-to shows are now beginning to make money. See our earlier article about the development of podcasting from the recent NAB Radioshow.

Podcasting was initially dominated by iTunes, but in recent years a number of platforms have emerged to develop and promote podcast shows. This latest move by Pandora signals another tipping point in the re-emerging importance of long form audio.

Block formatted stations such as Radio National realised the significance of podcasting as soon as they put their long form audio online and could see huge numbers of people downloading the shows. While long form audio may not fit well into modern broadcast radio schedules, the audience response has shown the format does have an audience if it can be delivered for listening when and where the audience wants to hear it.

See other radioinfo covering of podcasts here.