The Irish Podcast Awards has opened its early bird entries and will take place in Dublin this November to celebrate podcasting excellence within the Irish community.
The second-annual event is supported by Global and Acast, and being hosted by PodPod for the first time this year under Haymarket Media Group, which acquired the event in June 2022 as well as its companion, the British Podcast Awards.
"The Irish podcast industry has built on Ireland's rich tradition of storytelling, carrying it forward into the digital age,” said PodPod editor Adam Shepherd. “We're delighted to continue celebrating this vibrant and evolving sector, and we can't wait to hear the outstanding submissions from Ireland's podcast community.
Categories for this year’s event range from specific podcast genres such as Best News & Current Affairs to Best Climate as well as more specific formats such as Best Branded Podcast and Best Podcast in The Irish Language aimed at Gaelic podcasts.
In addition to the podcast categories, an individual creator or team will be honoured with the Rising Star Award, sponsored by Acast, which last year went to Mark Walsh, host of wellness series The Embodiment Podcast. Other special recognition categories include the Podcast Champion award sponsored by Global this year, Specialist, and Spotlight awards which are all free to enter as part of entries to any of the other traditional categories.
“I’m thrilled that Global is going to be part of this year’s Irish Podcast Awards and we’re very proud to be sponsoring the Podcast Champion Award," said Global head of international podcast sales Oli Walters. "It’s a great opportunity to celebrate the best of podcasting in Ireland and to grow awareness of the fantastic work and achievements happening right across the country.”
The highest honour and final award of the night is Podcast of The Year, and the winner will be chosen from any of the Gold winners in the previous categories. Yellow Path Productions’ true-crime documentary podcast The Witness took home the year prior. Additionally, podcast fans also have the choice to vote for their favourite podcast with the Listener’s Choice award, also sponsored by Acast.
The early bird application deadline is 23 June and the entry fees range from €45 + VAT per entry at the least to €175 +VAT per entry, depending on the company’s turnover that year. After that, an additional €100 fee will be added to each entry until the final deadline which is on 11 July. All entrants must have podcasts with at least six full episodes published between 1 April 2022 and 30 June 2023 to be eligible.
Independent audio producers that identify as BIPOC, Queer and/or Trans may be eligible for financial support with their entry fees through the Podcasting Seriously Awards Fund.
The shortlist will be announced in September after the judging takes place online from 1 to 16 August. To fill out the judging panel for the awards, organisers have opened the judging pool to entries from industry professionals with at least three years of experience in podcasting working in any aspect - producing, hosting, editing, promoting, et cetera - who can nominate either themselves or a colleague via the website.
Last year’s event, held in Dublin’s Liberty Hall, brought together over 350 members of the Irish podcasting industry and had entries from over 400 individual podcasts. The Witness took home two more awards including Best Documentary and Moment of The Year and comedy podcast Talking Bollox won Listener’s Choice.
The Irish Podcast Awards were founded by managing director of Rethink Audio Matt Hill and creative director of Folder Media Matt Deegan in 2022, following the success of the British and Australian Podcast Awards. The BPAs, entries for which are also still open, are taking place in London on 28 September this year, with new categories added this year honouring best History, Kids, and Parenting podcasts.
For more information, visit the Irish Podcast Awards website.
