British Podcast Awards launch a £50,000 funding scheme

• The British Podcast Awards has today launched a £50,000 funding scheme that offers financial support to podcasters to enhance their shows called The BPA Fund. Starting with partner Wellcome, The Pulse Award will award podcasts with grants of up to £5,000 to make health-focused features, episodes and short series that engages listeners in science and health research. You’ve until November 17 to apply.

  
  Aug 17 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Ireland has a new podcast network for indie podcasters. The Warren calls itself “a new network of the most remarkable and innovative podcasts in Ireland”, founded by Julien Clancy, Liam Geraghty and Colette Kinsella.

• Podcast publisher Audioboom has published its financial results for Q3 2019. Revenue was $5.7m for the quarter (up 86%); the company has 45% more advertisers year-on-year; and it’s earning $27 CPM.

• The new Google Pixel 4 will include a voice recorder with real-time voice transcription. We tried out the app - here’s the audio and transcript. The audio is an AAC-LC file, at 32kHz samplerate and around 48kbps variable bitrate, if you’re wondering. (Tip: on the occasion that we want free transcriptions, we use Google’s Live Transcribe app.)

• Dein deutscher Podcast jetzt endlich auch nativ auf dem Google Assistant - Google Podcasts appears to now work properly in Google Assistant in German.

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• Acast is working with Comic Relief, a UK charity, to promote its work using dynamic advertising within Acast’s podcasts.

• A Forbes blogger highlights Tink, a podcast publicity agency for non-fiction writers. (via PodMov Daily)

• Tickets are sold out to She Podcasts Live (October 11-13 in Atlanta GA). You can grab a virtual pass for videos though.

• Peru: an event, Podcast: una herramienta cultural y empresarial, in Lima on October 18 (free). (via VíaPodcast)

• Canada: the Vancouver Podcast Festival returns, November 7-10.

• “Christianity is one of the most popular and fastest growing podcast categories, but happens to be the least represented at mainstream conferences,” say the organisers of the Spark Christian Podcast Conference. They’re working on a Kickstarter campaign to fund a conference in Houston TX, USA.

• The ABC’s Kellie Riordan shares this from OzPod: their favourite podcast pitch ever. We’re unclear why they’ve not made it.

• Is your podcast available on vinyl?

Timezone fun: Hello Sydney and Melbourne. This is your six-monthly reminder that Podnews doesn’t do daylight savings. Up here, the former premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said that the extra hour would fade curtains and confuse the cows: and because we like both cows and curtains, Podnews will be an hour later for six months. Think of the curtains.

Podcasts

Artemis is a steamy retelling of the classic Greek myth of Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt. The first five episodes of thrilling adventures, complete with love, loss, and turmoil, are everywhere - and the description tells you how you can listen to all 16 on Himalaya+. (Megaphone)

A true crime podcast from some actual lawyers? Whatever next. The Case Files, from UK legal company Slater + Gordon, tells the stories of people who have gone through the civil justice system. (4DC / Omny Studio)