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View all search resultsAustralia to make tech companies pay more outlets for content under reworked media law
Changes made after discussions between government and opposition would also require digital platforms to strike deals with at least eight media companies, up from six in an earlier draft.
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A file photo taken on November 28, 2024 shows people looking at their phones in Melbourne, Australia. (AFP/William West)
A
ustralia raised the number of deals large tech firms must strike with local news outlets under a revamp of its media licensing laws introduced to parliament on Thursday, the government said, adding the measure would distribute advertising revenue to more domestic outlets.
The changes also commit the government to giving 5 percent of funds raised under the scheme to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), the formerly industry-owned newswire service, which now runs as a non-profit.
Changes made after discussions between government and opposition would also require digital platforms to strike deals with at least eight media companies, up from six in an earlier draft.
The government also reinstated a cap limiting any single deal to 25 percent of a platform's levy liability under the law, which is equal to 2.5 percent of a company's Australian advertising revenue, with the amount they pay offset by the value of deals they strike.
The legislation revives Canberra's effort to channel money from large technology companies to Australian news organizations whose content helps drive user engagement and advertising revenue on their platforms.
"People access news in different ways and from different sources, which is why we made changes to the distribution scheme to better support smaller and diverse media organizations," said Communications Minister Anika Wells in a statement.
The funding for AAP, which supplies text, photographs and video to media organizations around the country, and which faced closure in 2020, recognizes its role supporting public-interest journalism, the government said.
Australia's original 2021 media bargaining law required Google and Facebook owner Meta to negotiate payment deals for news content, with a government-appointed arbitrator empowered to set terms if negotiations failed.
The tech giants opposed efforts to charge license fees for media content but ultimately struck a series of commercial agreements under that framework. The government began redesigning the regime after Meta said it would stop paying for news content in Australia and other markets.
The new plan includes platforms such as TikTok and Microsoft's LinkedIn.
