Right, I'm saying that that company could be not Apple, and that the system could be built in a way so that other companies could also participate. It doesn't

Right, I'm saying that that company could be not Apple, and that the system could be built in a way so that other companies could also participate. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a technical level. Imagine the following: - Company starts a "distribution network" (much like current ones) for paid podcasts. You sign up, get a personallised feed to all podcasts you are currently paying for. Passworded feed maybe. - Overcast also searches this distribution network and points that this is a paid podcast, directs to website. Alternatively, people just go to this website because it has good content or whatever - Other distribution networks do the same thing, offering different payment strategies/genres/whatever. Basically no technical differences from before. Same feeds, nobody controls the distribution more than currently. It could end up with one big player, but by moving forward and giving a viable path for people who want to make discoverable paid content ("Oh I'll just throw it up onto Podscription", name's a freebee for anyone who wants to do this). If someone else does it and gains traction to reach a critical mass, suddenly Apple can not build a closed system for this. But if nobody does it, and Apple suddenly says 'Oh, here's our iTunes Premier Podcasts. Tap into our existing audience (but only works in iOS Podcast player)' then it's game over. Doing nothing is giving Apple this pathway if they ever want to do it. Helping to move an alternative forward for something in which there seems to be demand will block Apple from closing everything off.