How many millennials’ homes even have a single radio? In 2008, only 6 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 said they didn’t have a radio at home. Being able to integrate content from local member stations is also critical to managing the shifts in local/network balance of power that digital hath wrought.Īpril 4, 2019And it provides more hope for “radio” in the home, a place where it’s lost significant ground to podcasts. The network’s been anticipating this for years: Remember, NPR One’s original name was the “Infinite Player” - a way to shift the digital listening experience from picking individual stories to something more serendipity-driven, radio-like, and connected to public radio’s strengths. Still, this is a big deal for audio news producers, especially NPR. And NPR One has been available to Alexa users for two years now - though it requires activating a specific skill, a significant barrier to entry. Note that the proper phrasing would really be “new Alexa owners can hear rather than “new Alexa owners will hear” - users will still need to select NPR as their preferred source over Bloomberg, CNN, or whoever else. Existing Alexa account holders will also be able to access the new experience, though the utterance they use will need to be a little more specific: either “Alexa, play news from NPR,” or “Alexa, play NPR news.”
Now, new users who have not had an Alexa account previously will simply have to say, “Alexa, play the news.” Alexa will then ask, “Where should I get your news from?” If the user replies, “NPR,” Alexa will ask for a zip code and confirm a local Member station, which will then be linked to an NPR One-like flow of news.īuilt by NPR, the new long-form news experience is expected to slowly roll out to 100% of Alexa devices by Monday, April 15. Only now has this become possible without their having to find the right combination of words to “open” a new skill. In the two years since we dedicated a team to building our relationships with Amazon and other smart-speaker platforms, our goal has been to use inventory within the national newscast to introduce Alexa listeners to their Member stations. Starting today, thanks to a new partnership between NPR and Amazon, new Alexa owners will hear not only the hourly newscast but, immediately after it, a continuous listening experience that delivers a stream of the best and most up-to-date content from Member stations and NPR.
The network sent this email to its member stations this morning: This is a potentially big deal for NPR, which - through the algorithmic programming smarts that go into NPR One and, you know, decades of running 24-hour radio stations - has plenty of expertise in creating extended listening experiences. (The videos are only on Alexa’d devices with screens, obviously.) You can skip stories if you’d rather not examine every story in vivid detail. Ask Alexa to “tell me the news” or to “play news” from a specific outlet and you’ll get detailed audio from all providers, and video from CNBC and Newsy.
It’s rolling out an Alexa feature in the US that provides long-form news from Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Newsy and NPR. Amazon is betting that you’ll want something deeper. Voice assistants usually only give you brief summaries of the news - helpful if you’re in a hurry, but that’s about it. Asking Alexa for the news will no longer just mean asking for a five-minute MP3 file to be played - it’ll be like turning on the radio.
That’s changing (not the heat death thing) with an update to Alexa, rolling out now, that will let you turn that top-of-the-hour briefing into infinite news programming. The heat death of the sun will grow nearer. You will stand in your kitchen, alone with your thoughts. If you do, it plays the latest headlines from whatever news organizations you’ve set up in your Flash Briefing. Hey, owners of an Amazon Echo! (Or hell, owners of that voice-controlled Amazon microwave!) Ever ask Alexa for some news?