Comment from Peter Saxon. 

The Australian commercial radio industry strongly supports the proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code.  
 

Google has responded to the proposed draft mandatory code released by the ACCC.

The code would allow Australian media to bargain with Google and Facebook to quickly secure fair payment for news content

Managing Director, Mel Silva, on behalf of Google Australia published the following open letter.
 

 CRA says the release of the ACCC draft mandatory code of conduct to govern agreements between tech giants and Australian media companies is “an important step forward”.

Commercial Radio Australia says a collective licensing-fee arrangement would provide the best framework to enable commercial radio broadcasters to share in the ad revenue that Google and Facebook generate from radio-created content.
 

Google Australia's Managing Director Mel Silva has responded to the latest fall out from the Digital Platforms Inquiry, which will mandate that Google must pay fees to media companies for their journalism. 

Google plans to give more prominence to original journalism in its news searches, according to the company's VP of News Richard Gingras.

Writing in a company blog last week, Gingras said Google is changing the way it displays search results to "better recognize original reporting, surface it more prominently in Search and ensure it stays there longer."

Smart speakers have been at the top of many Christmas gift lists for the last few years, and now spreading into new markets and in more languages. 

Where you once had to turn on a radio or search on your smart phone, you can simply ask your smart speaker to play your favourite station. 

Jaime Chaux is the Head of Digital for Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) and discusses the key learnings he’s discovered to help you design your future in a voice controlled world.

A study conducted last year by the US based organisation Consumer Watchdog found that Google and Alexa have patented a range of eavesdropping functions associated with their smart speakers. 
 
While the two companies file hundreds of patents each year and often do not take them to market, the patents reveal some of the thinking from Google and Amazon about how they might monetise the new smart speaker technology using data heard in houses and offices where smart speakers are present.