Ireland's first podcasting channel was unveiled last night. The channel was set up by a company that includes former director of radio at RTÉ, Helen Shaw. It has entered into a sponsorship deal with mobile services provider, O2.

The first in a series of channels is a music channel that allows people listen to and download a diverse range of new Irish music.

The channel, O2 Making Waves, is available through a new Irish podcasting portal and directory, www.podcastingireland.ie. Yesterday the channel was the fifth most popular podcast downloaded via iTunes onto Irish computers.

Ms Shaw said she and her two colleagues at Digicast Ltd decided they would build the channel to as high as standard as they could, and see if a sponsor would then come forward.

She said she was delighted O2 had come forward and that the deal was the first commercial sponsorship of an Irish podcast channel. The channel would allow O2 access mainly people aged between 15 and 35 years.

Ms Shaw is co-owner of Digicast with Simon Factor and Joe Conway. The channel provides free access to new Irish musical talent and also plans to release one new music podcast each Friday.

It also plans to provide a diverse range of content in a number of genres.

"Many radio stations in Ireland are already podcasting existing shows from their schedule but Digicast's aim is to create a podcast-only channel which has the same quality and professionalism as traditional broadcasting," said Mr Conway.

The channel currently features eleven artists on the site including singer Julie Feeney, who recently won the Choice Music Award, and Dublin band Aaron Smith and the Born Days. Another artist is RTÉ newsman Conor Mark Kavanagh, whose song, So Much, was short-listed in the recent National Song Contest.

Top Irish podcasts

The top 10 general podcasts on the iTunes music list yesterday were:

Ian Dempsey's Breakfast Show
The Ricky Gervais Show (Guardian)
The Ricky Gervais Show
Strawberry Alarm Clock
98FM Trollcast
George Hook and Brent Pope
MTV News (Video)
Noam Chomsky
The Onion Radio
Spin1038 Breakfast