Audible Join DLT Entertainment as Sponsors of The Edinburg Comedy Awards

The UK’S Most Prestigious Prizes For Comedy, The Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Aannouce New Multi-Year Sponsorships

London – June 17, 2026 The audio storytelling service Audible joins DLT Entertainment ahead of the 46th year of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, which have been discovering comedy genius since 1981

Affectionately known as ‘the Oscars of Comedy’, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards have today (Wednesday 17th June) announced an exciting new sponsorship with Audible, a leading provider of spoken word entertainment.

From 2026 Audible will sponsor the Audible Best Comedy Show and the Audible Panel Prize, which is awarded at the discretion of the judges to an individual or organisation that embodies the true spirit of the Fringe, for an initial three-year period. DLT Entertainment will again sponsor the Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award.

The Fringe remains the key launchpad for comedians and the Edinburgh Comedy Awards play a vital role in spotlighting emerging talent.

Recently, winners have gone on to appear in high-profile projects including Last One Laughing S2, which starred Best Comedy Show winners Amy Gledhill (2024) and Sam Campbell (2022), and SNL UK, which features 2025 Best Newcomer winner Ayoade Bamgboye plus four other nominees: Larry Dean, George Fouracres (as part of sketch trio Daphne), Ania Magliano, and Paddy Young. In April of this year, 2016 winner Richard Gadd’s Half Man, a six-part TV drama, premiered on the BBC and HBO, and in May the BBC announced it has commissioned a new comedy Opening Up from 2024 winner Amy Gledhill.

The Awards have a fantastic record for discovering comedians who become successful both nationally and world wide. Previous Award winners include Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Sarah Millican, Omid Djalili, Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin, The League of Gentlemen, Jenny Eclair and Frank Skinner. Many award winners and nominees have gone on to have a significant impact on mainstream popular culture by writing, directing and acting in some of the most iconic television and film over the last four decades, including Green Wing and Smack The Pony (Victoria Pile), Sherlock (Mark Gatiss), Alan Partridge and Philomena (Steve Coogan), Car Share (Peter Kay), The IT Crowd (Richard Ayoade), Benidorm and No.9 (Steve Pemberton), Doctor Who and her eponymous TV show (Catherine Tate), W1A (Sara Pascoe), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Romesh Ranganathan), Sex Education (Hannah Gadsby), This Way Up (Aisling Bea), Baby Reindeer (Richard Gadd), The Mash Report and Pod Save the UK (Nish Kumar) and Starstruck (Rose Matafeo). Best Newcomer nominee Alex Horne created the BAFTA award-winning TV series Taskmaster, which has had appearances from 45 Edinburgh Comedy Awards winners and nominees across its 22 series.

Nica Burns CBE, Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said:
“The Edinburgh Comedy Awards are delighted to announce Audible as our new sponsor. It is clear to us that they are committed to live comedy and the pleasure that it brings to so many people. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with them. A warm welcome back to DLT Entertainment who will again sponsor the Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award.”

Lisa Higginson, Senior Director, Regional Content Audible, said:
“The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have launched the careers of some of Britain’s most beloved comedians, and we’re thrilled to support the next chapter of that legacy. At Audible, we’re very proud of our brilliant Audible Original comedy slate, which has featured many of the previous prize winners and nominees. We’re delighted to be working with The Edinburgh Comedy Awards to see what the next generation of talent brings to the industry.”

Donald Taffner, Jr., Chairman of DLT Entertainment UK Ltd, said:
“Comedy has always been at the heart of my family and my business. Supporting the Edinburgh Comedy Awards is not simply a sponsorship for us. It is an opportunity to celebrate and encourage the extraordinary creativity, originality and risk-taking that make live comedy so special. We have spent decades championing comedy and helping talented performers find their audience. DLT Entertainment is proud to support the Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award and recognize excellence, discover new voices, and help ensure that the future of comedy remains as vibrant and exciting as ever.”

At a launch event held at @sohoplace, the first new-build West End theatre in 50 years owned by Awards Director Nica Burns, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards also unveiled a new brand identity and new website ahead of its 46th year.

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards are judged by a carefully curated panel made up of seven industry experts and three knowledgeable and avid comedy fans from the general public, who are selected through an open application process. The 2025 judging panel will be announced on Wednesday 8th July.

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Further information:
Nikki Murray, on behalf of DLT Entertainment: nikki.murray@premiercomms.com | +44 (0) 20 7292 5094

NOTES TO EDITORS

Founded in 1963 as a distribution company by Don Taffner Sr., the company added television production to its portfolio in 1977. It has enjoyed terrific success in its sixty-three-year history with legendary hits on both sides of the Atlantic including the multiple award-winning and BBC Trust praised sitcom My Family, As Time Goes By, Three’s Company, Too Close for Comfort and Meet My Folks.

In addition, DLT has built a reputation as a leading distribution company with classics such as The Benny Hill Show, The World at War, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, The Russ Abbot Show, Michel Legrand and Friends, and Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit.

Production activities have expanded through an investment in Mark Watson’s Impatient Productions, the acquisition of Vera Productions whose productions include Getting On, Bremner, Bird and Fortune, and numerous Dispatches, and the recent acquisition of Juniper Communications, producers of Politics London and Politics South East.

In 1986 DLT expanded into stage production in the US and in the UK, where it owns and manages London’s Shaftesbury Theatre, the current London home of Avenue Q.

Later, DLT added talent representation to its portfolio with ownership positions in MMB Creative, The Soho Agency, Blue Book Artist Management, The Galton Agency, Bedford Square Voices and Gag Reflex.

2020 saw the creation of an audio division with the release of Very Modern Quests starring Alice Levine and Panic Room starring John Robins for Audible.

Recent productions for BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds include two series of comedy.co.uk Best Radio Comedy award-winning Time of the Week, created by Lorna Rose Treen and Jonathan Oldfield and starring BAFTA award-winner Sian Clifford, factual comedy series Ria Lina Gets Forensic and ARIA-award-nominated stand-up special Scott Bennett: Blood Sugar Baby, and The Many Wrongs Of Lord Christian Brighty.

DLT has expanded its commitment to comedy in recent years by sponsoring the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.