If someone thinks I'm an a***, they can switch off

JAMES Haskell took the direct approach as a player and he is no different as a podcaster, saying it as he sees it rather than tiptoeing around a subject so as not to trample on feelings.

- Paul Rees

“I do not swim against the stream for the sake of it, but there is a lot of rubbish out there,” said the 77-cap England flanker who four years ago launched The Good, the Bad & The Rugby podcast with Alex Payne and Mike Tindall. “If someone thinks I am an awful arse and does not want to listen to me, they can switch off.

“If I tried to change what I did, it would be watering it down. People in the mainstream media have to be careful about what they say and do. We do not just give listeners an opinion, but give them a look behind the curtains as well. And there is a lot of self-deprecation.”

The mainstream media is trying to reinvent itself in the social media age but podcasting is becoming big business. Haskell’s podcast this month acquired a new majority shareholder, Platform Media, and is closing in on one million followers.

“It is the biggest rugby podcast in the world,” said Haskell. “And it is one of the biggest revenue generators of any podcast. The Platform deal will allow us to expand and take in other sports, such as football and F1, while being able to turbocharge The Good, The Bad and The Rugby.

“We have theatre tours and a book coming out. The idea is to reach a certain figure of revenue with the podcast and capitalise on our chemistry, but we will not want to still be talking about rugby after a period because your relevance diminishes the longer you are out of a sport.

“It is more about bringing on the next generation so Alex, Mike and I go off and pursue other things that we care about. It is nice to have some money after working very hard to develop something but the exciting part comes now, building the business.”