Live at CES 2019: iHeartRadio News RoundUp
CES is finally here and it is buzzing! We’re making a number of exciting announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas and we’ve compiled them all for you below.
It has been a big year for us—we welcomed HowStuffWorks and Jelli to the iHeartMedia family, announced the upcoming iHeartRadio Podcast Awards Presented By Capital One®, and have continued to introduce new integrations and capabilities that support iHeartRadio on over 250 platforms and 2,000 devices.
We can’t wait to bring you more innovation in 2019, but until then, get caught up on our biggest CES news!
iHeartFamily App
iHeartRadio Family now boasts new features, content, parental control settings and more. Live Radio, Playlist Radio and Podcasts are now available in the app for a total of more than 80 pieces of family-friendly content. Improved navigation now includes a scrolling mechanism that moves top to bottom instead of left to right, and now has three tabs (All, Music and Stories) for more intuitive browsing.
Additionally, parents now have more control over the app experience with “Hide this Station” and “Hide this Story” features, which enable parents to manage certain content through the “Parental Controls” tab on the Settings page. Download iHeartRadio Family on Amazon Fire Tablet, with iOS and Android devices coming soon.
Honda Dream Drive Integration
Honda is demonstrating its prototype Honda Dream Drive, the automotive industry’s first integrated driver and passenger infotainment, commerce, services and rewards dashboards within the vehicle environment. In partnership with iHeartRadio, Honda will also explore in the Dream Drive platform the integration of live broadcast radio content (AM/FM signals) simultaneously with digitally streamed audio content. Drivers will be able to access and interact with their favorite iHeartRadio content, including thousands of live stations from across the U.S., custom artist radio stations and more than 20,000 podcasts.
Bixby From Samsung Integration Update
iHeartMedia continues its strong partnership with Samsung and unveils a voice-enabled integration with the new Bixby, Samsung’s intelligence platform, that will enable users in the U.S. to seamlessly call up specific live and iHeartRadio original radio stations. Now, listening to iHeartRadio on Bixby-enabled devices will be easier than ever. Soon, listeners will also be able to enjoy music playlists and their favorite podcasts.
Roku Devices Voice-Integration Update
iHeartRadio users can now use simple voice commands with Roku streaming players and Roku TVs with Roku TV Wireless Speakers connected to listen to all their favorite live radio stations, artist stations and podcasts. With Roku TV Wireless Speakers, users can bring music to life with powerful performance via stereo separation, vibrant high frequencies and rich bass, plus, full, clear sound. For a frictionless experience, users can give voice commands like “Play iHeartRadio Countdown on iHeartRadio” to a Roku TV Voice Remote or a Roku Touch™. Roku TV Wireless Speakers are the first speakers built by Roku and are designed exclusively for Roku TV™ to be incredibly easy to set up, simple to use and deliver premium sound.
Android TV Integration Update
Android TV devices with the Google Assistant built-in allow for a more seamless listening experience. With this integration, listeners can easily pick radio stations, podcasts and playlists from the personalized recommendations curated by iHeartRadio that appear automatically on their home screen using just their voice. Additionally, listeners can activate devices with far field microphones by saying, “Hey Google,” or by pressing the mic button on the remote to quickly find their favorite live radio station.
With a complete design refresh and the addition of podcasts, free music playlists and the Assistant, users can now enjoy a more delightful and frictionless iHeartRadio experience in their living rooms on any Android TV devices including smart televisions, set top boxes and streaming devices
Android Auto Integration
Listeners can easily access even more of their favorite iHeartRadio features in the car including music playlists and podcasts in addition to thousands of live radio stations and custom artist stations with the latest version of Android Auto. Discovering new and existing iHeartRadio content is now more intuitive—the new large album art views makes it easier to quickly select something to play, while the improved voice search experience enables drivers to just say “OK Google” to find music without taking their eyes of the road. Drivers and passengers can also view alternate search results and browse through optimized imagery.
