Audio templates are a necessary part of distributing your podcast through Publish, whether or not you are using Dovetail. However, templates are most critical for our ad operations because they correlate with your show structure in Dovetail, our dynamic ad-insertion software. By creating a template, you let our dynamic ad-insertion software Dovetail know where it can put ads in your podcast. For example, if your podcast is typically one uninterrupted segment then you would indicate one segment in your template. Dovetail would see this and know that it can put ads before and after your segment, but not in the middle.
If you typically have a break in your podcast, this could be a good place to put ads. In that case your template would consist of two segments, and Dovetail would know that it can put ads before your podcast, during your break, and after your podcast.
You can also opt to include a video template in your podcast:
You can have multiple templates for your podcast, but only one template per episode. Perhaps one week a single-segment structure suits your content best, and the next week you need to use the two-segment structure. You may switch between templates, but they must be created ahead of time and approved by the Ad Operations team. Please note that while we allow for multiple show structures we recommend you stick to a primary structure as much as possible.
Warning: do not add, rename, or modify a template without first alerting PRX at podcast-support@prx.org. Publishing an episode to an unauthorized template could invalidate all episodes in your feed.
Why is there a minimum/maximum length to my audio in templates?
We ask for a minimum and maximum length so that producers don’t accidentally upload the wrong file to their podcast, or upload files in the wrong order.