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The nominations for The UK Podcaster Awards have been announced.

It’s the first major UK Podcaster awards competition for years, there have been others, but there’s every chance that these are here to stay.

There are 18 categories with 54 UK Podcasters up for a gong. There’s a nod to the US market too in the International section with 5 nominations, which is a clever move considering 10% of the US population listen to a Podcast every week.

What sets these awards apart from previous attempts in the UK is the new found enthusiasm for Podcasting and where it sits in the New Media world. There is evidence for growth in the UK and US with new investment in the medium.

Whilst Amazon is going hot on Podcast through its audible business stateside and to a degree in Europe, in the UK Audioboom‘s Radio Reimagined, which distributes audio for the Financial Times, the BBC and Sky Sports, has seen a 10-fold increase in its market capitalisation over the past six months.

Mike and Izabela Russell who are also founders of The New Media Europe conference lead UK Podcasters Awards. They set up a UK Podcasters group and website as a way to promote growth in the UK Podcast scene

Podcast as a format has been around for over a decade now, and the UK Podcasters members hope for resurgence, investment and growth to match that of the US.

The issue for UK Podcasters is perhaps the listener perception that a Podcast is merely a rebroadcast of existing radio content. Whereas that may be the case in some content these awards seem to prove there is a burgeoning UK Podcast scene waiting for ears to pick it up.

Awards aside there are often a question about quality. James Cridland is a radio futurologist and says, “Podcasting offers a good alternative to the kind of programmes you would expect on the radio,”.

“The hard part is finding the quality. There are some really good podcasts but there are a load of terrible ones as well.”

However awards events have a habit of helping to push up quality. Mike Russell from UK Podcasters is fond of quotes of positivity as a motivator; one he uses from Albert Einstein says that you should try to become a person of value and not just of success.

Perhaps then the value of a UK Podcasters awards event brings not just success for the winner’s but value to the medium as a whole and is the start of a new wave of really good Podcasts that listeners love.

The UK Podcasters Awards takes place on Saturday September 12th at 6pm in the Midland Hotel Manchester. The awards are a part of New Media Europe conference. You don’t have to attend the whole conference and you can buy tickets just for the award event.

References / Source

Quote James Cridland – BBC NEWS

Visit James’s website.

Podcast info sources –
Podcasting poised to go from niche to mainstream.
Listening facts

Tickets and details about the UK Podcast Awards and New Media Europe

UK Podcast Awards website and tickets

New Media Europe Tickets

Note: No affiliate links are used in this blog post.

Image Credit: New Media Europe / UK Podcasters copyright 2015.

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