$1m podcast fund for Australia, new US stats for podcasting, and London Podcast Festival

The Australian ABC announces a AUD$1m (USD$890k) podcasting fund, for smaller community podcasters. “The fund will also be used to commission podcasts around specific communities and their interests across a wide range of activities including sport, culture, lifestyle, comedy and the arts.”

Australia’s NOVA Entertainment announces that they will sell ad inventory for Acast in Australia.

The Publisher of podnews, James Cridland, spoke this morning on ABC RN’s breakfast show. We’ll link to James’s keynote speech in Monday’s podnews, once we’ve added the pictures to it.

Stats: Westwood One in the US release The Podcast Download, new stats about the US podcasting scene. Data about speed listening and ads.

In the US, the IAB ran a pitching event for podcasters to woo advertisers, Podcast Upfront.

Event: London Podcast Festival, September 13-17. Hosted at Kings Place, which is also the UK home of The Guardian, next to Kings Cross station.

New content announced from Midroll, including NFL, true crime, and comedy.

Today’s ludicrous headline: Podcast fans want more ads. The stats linked-to say they would tolerate more ads.