Listen to the news from The Straits Times on Google Home in SPH-Google tie-up

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to set up Google Home to listen to news and podcasts from The Straits Times. New subscribers who take up The Straits Times All-Digital package or All-Digital + Print package get a free Google Home Mini.

From April 20, new subscribers to either The Straits Times All-Digital package or The Straits Times All-Digital + Print package will also receive a Google Home Mini (above), or can top up S$79 for a Google Home. PHOTO: GOOGLE

The Google Home works with Google's Assistant software, which lets users talk to it through voice commands. PHOTO: GOOGLE

Google's Head of Industrial Design for Home Isabelle Olsson, speaks about the Google Home Mini during its launch, on Oct 4, 2017. From April 20, new subscribers to either The Straits Times All-Digital package or The Straits Times All-Digital + Print package will also receive a Google Home Mini (above), or can top up S$79 for a Google Home. PHOTO: REUTERS

Charmaine Ng

Updated

Published

Apr 18, 2018, 10:06 AM

SINGAPORE - Owners of the Google Home devices will be able to listen to news and podcasts from The Straits Times, The Business Times and radio station Money FM 89.3, in a tie-up between Singapore Press Holdings and tech giant Google.

New subscribers who sign up from Friday (April 20) for the The Straits Times All-Digital package or All-Digital + Print package will also receive a free Google Home Mini.

Alternatively, they may top up $79 to receive a Google Home, which is larger in size and has better audio quality.

The SPH and Google tie-up allows users to give voice commands to the device for it to read the latest news from the two newspapers. The range of voice-enabled speakers will be available in Singapore on Friday.

To listen to the news on the speakers, users are required to download the Google Home app and set their device language to English (Singapore).

Users can then give the following voice commands: "Ok Google, listen to news from The Straits Times" or "Hey Google, play me the news from The Business Times", which will prompt the device to read out the latest news.

As part of the tie-up, there will be four audio feeds for Google Home:

* A news bulletin from The Straits Times presented by Money FM 89.3;
* A financial news bulletin from The Business Times presented by Money FM 89.3;
* Podcasts by The Straits Times and The Business Times;
* A segment called Need To Know, which offers tips on career development and personal growth, presented by Business Insider Singapore and Money FM 89.3

Mr Anthony Tan, deputy CEO of SPH, said the initiative aims to improve user experience and provide audiences with new formats of accessing the news.

"Voice-enabled technology is the latest frontier and we see a lot of potential to use it to increase our engagement with audiences. We are delighted to collaborate with Google on this initiative and congratulate them on the launch of Google Home, alongside our strategic partner StarHub, in Singapore," said Mr Tan.

StarHub is the exclusive telco partner for Google Home in Singapore.

Ms Sumiko Tan, managing editor of SPH's English/Malay/Tamil Media group and executive editor of ST, said: "People get news through different platforms these days. We're very excited to be working with Google Home on this voice-enabled initiative."

The tech giant also announced its expansion into South-east Asia on Wednesday, with the opening of its first Google Store in the region, in Singapore.

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