Australia’s mainstream media outlet Seven West Media has become the first mainstream media outlet in the country to reach a payment agreement with Google. Meanwhile, the Australian government is pushing legislation that would force technology giant Google to pay media companies for news content.
Seven West Media, which owns Australia’s Seven TV network and Burns’ main metro newspaper, said it would provide content to Google News Showcase, a news platform, but did not disclose the terms of their deal, Reuters reported recently. Seven West Media’s main rivals News Corp. and Nine Entertainment Co. have failed to reach an agreement with Google and are instead backing a bill expected to be passed in the country this week.
The new law to be passed in Australia would require the tech giant to negotiate with local newsmakers to pay for content that appears in search results or news updates, with a government-appointed arbitrator setting prices if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.
Google’s news platform, Google News Showcase, went live in Australia this month, and so far only specialized online media publishers and one regional newspaper have reached an agreement with Google to pay for their content to appear on the Google News platform.
Outside of Australia, Reuters and other news outlets have reportedly signed similar agreements with Google.
The Australian government announced a draft on July 30 last year that would force platforms such as Facebook and Google to pay news media for news content. The world-leading initiative sparked a backlash from the tech giants. It follows 18 months of inconclusive negotiations between the two sides. Australia’s finance minister had vowed to be the first country in the world to require Facebook and Google to pay news media, and legislation was expected to be passed that year. In addition to having to pay for news, the guidelines were first introduced to cover a number of issues, such as access to user information, algorithmic transparency, content ranking of dynamic messages on the platform, and search results.
Facebook and Google have been strongly opposed to any move to force them to share advertising revenue, suggesting that they might boycott Australian media if mandatory payments were implemented. But the Epidemic has worsened the economy, causing dozens of Australian newspapers to shut down and hundreds of journalists to lose their jobs. That has prompted progress on the bill.
Recent Comments