The Google Nest speaker was only accurate for radio 40% – a threat to radio

Jaime Chaux, Head of Digital, Commercial Radio Australia spoke about the rise and rise of smart speakers, the future radio in the car, the tech landscape and the future potential business models for radio. It’s been a big year for Commercial Radio Australia in terms of devices, measurement and a podcast ranker – driving advertisers to this space and so increasing revenue. The Google Nest speaker was only accurate for radio 40% of the time, this was a threat to radio listening. Some parts of the world have hit 20% smartspeaker ownership so it’s still new but it’s growing, usage of radio on these speakers is growing – radio is getting non-traditional into spaces in the home. Smartspeaker also opens other platform entry such as in TV.  Jamie also looked at radio in the car, most strikingly the buttons for radio in the Android Automotive car are gone. Screens in the car are being taken over by other applications, radio is treated like just another app. He showed station information can be missing the UX is no longer a good one for radio. He mentioned the NAB Pilot group which is assisting Google to bring in a better radio experience in the car through Android Automotive. Ford and GM have also said that they will have Android Automotive so it’s critical we get this right. He went on to discuss the blending of audio worlds using the example of iHeart Media. This case study shows how big companies are acquiring smaller businesses to give them a 360 strategy in the audio landscape. Jamie felt that in the future this will make tech advances move more rapidly. Jamie also described SCA as a case study for Future Business Models for example their app and it’s bringing together of amalgamation of listening and predicting wants for new content for listeners. He said this was a space to watch.  Jamie noted that all future business starts from broadcast radio to expand the offerings to different platforms, and “not forget broadcast”. A powerful example he noted was during emergency situations where broadcast radio really is a constant and radios ability to deliver information to as many people as possible continues to be very important.