Westwood One and Google are teaming up to bring the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament to smart speakers again this year. Fans with Google-powered smart speakers will be able to say “Hey Google, play NCAA March Madness on Westwood One” and immediately hear the action.
“Westwood One continues to innovate on our voice platform, with the largest network of custom voice apps, voice landing pages for brands, and a new slate of voice programming in 2020,” EVP of Marketing for CUMULUS MEDIA and President of Westwood One, Susan Grimes said in a press release. “Collaborating with our partners at Google to highlight our NCAA March Madness coverage elevates our voice platform and speaks to our strategy of continuous innovation, all while serving the fan with premium content whenever and however they listen.”
Listeners are using smart speakers more and more for AM/FM radio consumption. A study conducted by Edison Research concluded that 24% of smart speaker users accessed AM or FM stations in 2019. That is up from 18% in the same study done in 2018.
Coverage of March Madness begins on Sunday on Westwood One when the network will present a Selection Sunday special.
