Amazon Echo

BBC’s Trushar Barot says the news industry needs to make artificial intelligence an industry priority. Users are becoming increasingly comfortable with voice as a means of interacting with their technology, he argues, and now is the time to experiment with new apps and skills on voice platforms, invest in R&D there and foster industry-wide forums and collaborations on this front. 

Public documents including job offers suggest that streaming device maker Roku is accelerating its voice control technology efforts and it may be developing a smart speaker like Amazon’s Echo. The company won’t confirm these ambitions, however. 

Amazon’s relationship with magazine publishers goes back years, with it handling their print and digital magazine sales and serving as a retail partner that helps publishers turn their editorial content into commerce. This relationship began to deepen two years ago when the e-commerce giant began selling its voice-activated home assistant, Echo, and opened it up to publishers and other developers to create content for it.

eMarketer estimates Amazon Echo has a 70.6% share f the voice-enabled digital assistant marketplace,followed by Google Home (23.8%) and everyone else (5.6%).

News from 23 Scripps local TV markets is just a voice command away with the Flash Briefing service.

Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL just got a little more connected, with its latest headlines read by WRAL’s anchors and reporters through Amazon’s voice service, Alexa.