Radio services back on air on Google speakers after outage
“We have been in close contact with Google since the issues began last week as the service affects more than one million local listeners."
An outage of Google Assistant’s radio integration that caused disruption for more than a million listeners who use Google Nest speakers and devices to listen to radio has been resolved.
Listeners who asked for commercial, ABC and SBS stations to play on their devices had reported since April 6 that the service was down and an error message was brewing announced.
Google released a statement that the problem was a global issue affecting users across Google speakers, displays and cars affecting most radio providers and the Google Assistant team was actively working to restore service.
Ford Ennals, CEO of industry body Commerical Radio and Audio, said: “CRA’s partnership with Google makes 400 Australian commercial, ABC and SBS radio stations available to listeners using voice command so they can ask for stations to play on Google Nest speakers and displays.
“We have been in close contact with Google since the issues began last week as the service affects more than one million local listeners.
“Radio is an essential service and with more and more Australians listening via streaming, this issue highlights the significant role that global tech platforms have in making radio services reliable and easy to access.
“We are pleased services are now up and running and we will work with Google to understand what went wrong and how such issues can be resolved more quickly in the future.”
The leading media trade publication in Australia.
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This week, the CRA announced the 2023 Australian Commerical Radio and Audio Awards (the ACRAs) will feature major new awards, including Station of the Year, Individual Talent of the Year, Australian Music Champion and Podcast of the Year.
Ennals said, “We are thrilled to be hosting radio’s night of nights, with refreshed awards which reflect the exciting changes taking place across commercial radio and audio.
“The 2023 ACRAs are slimmed down and sharpened up, with new awards recognising radio station creativity and innovation, expanded awards to acknowledge the amazing work taking place in the podcasting field, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion.”
