Since the Australian government passed new legislation, which will make Google and Facebook pay for news content on their platforms, Facebook has now agreed to pay News Corp Australia for all of its news content.
News Corp, which has not announced the value of the three-year agreement, controls about 70% of newspaper circulation in Australia.
Initially, the legislation had been strongly opposed by the tech giants, which resulted in Facebook blocking all news content in Australia over the dispute, before reinstating it again.
The new law aims to tackle the Australian media's loss of advertising revenue after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that Google takes 53% of online advertising, while Facebook takes 28%. The remaining share is distributed to other platforms including news outlets. The ACCC also found there was an imbalance of power between the media and tech firms, because the former were so reliant on Google and Facebook.
Simon Deans, corporate and commercial partner and technology specialist from B P Collins, comments on the potential impact in the UK:
“Depending on how this deal plays out in Australia, we could see these changes in the UK sooner rather than later.”
For further advice or guidance, contact our corporate and commercial team on enquiries@bpcollins.co.uk or 01753 889995.
