A new awards ceremony has been created just for podcasts, hoping to discover and reward audio creators from around the UK.

The British Podcast Awards launches today, with recognition for comedy and current affairs, True Crime, Best Interview and Smartest Podcast amongst others. It is being organised by radio dude Matt Deegan and former Guardian writer/podcast host Matt Hill.

Matt told RadioToday: “Britain has always been a home of creative excellence, and we want to help find the next Answer Me This! or My Dad Wrote A Porno.”

The Chair of Judges for 2017 will be Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist – part of the Radiotopia network – and co-host of Answer Me This!.

Co-founder Matt Hill said: “The British Podcast Awards aims to celebrate the quirkiest and most inventive shows being made right now – so we’ve built categories that reflect the huge range of talent in this country.”

The winners will be announced at the end of April at a Gala event and post-show party. Supporters of the night include Audioboom and Acast, plus London recording studio Maple Street Studios and UK Radioplayer, who are supporting podcasts from broadcast radio shows.

The finalists will also be featured in an exclusive podcast series from the Guardian. The awards themselves will be decided by a panel of independent judges representing podcast creators, publishers, the press, listeners and audio industry executives.

Entries open today (6th February) and will close a month later on Monday, 6th March. To enter, go to britishpodcastawards.com