UK forces Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant to carry radio streams ad…

The UK government is designating Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple's Siri as regulated Radio Selection Services, compiling them to carry UK radio streams ad-free. The move applies to all AI-upgraded versions of these platforms and targets the 18 percent of UK radio listening that now occurs through voice-assisted devices. If you make a voice assistant or radio app, your growth-stage monetisation model just became illegal in the UK. Amazon, Google and Apple must now carry radio streams without pre- or mid-roll ads; if you're selling ad insertion or analytics to voice platforms, or selling radio listeners to advertisers, you have eight weeks to find a new market.