Australia to make tech companies pay more news outlets for content

In pic: Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells SYDNEY: Australia will raise the number of deals large tech firms must strike with local news outlets under a revamp of its media licensing laws to be introduced in parliament Thursday, govt said, adding the measure would distribute advertising revenue to more domestic outlets.The changes also commit govt to giving 5% of funds raised under the scheme to the Australian Associated Press, the formerly industry-owned newswire service, which now runs as a non-profit. Changes would also require digital pl­atforms to strike deals with at least eight media companies, up from six in an earlier draft.Govt also reinstated a cap limiting any single deal to 25% of a platform’s levy liability under the law, which is equal to 2.5% 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 firms to Australian news organisations 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 organisations,” said communications minister Anika Wells in a statement.Australia’s 2021 media bargaining law required Google and Facebook owner Meta to negotiate payment deals for news content, with a govt-appointed arbitrator empowered to set terms if negotiations failed. The tech giants struck a series of agreements under that framework, but govt began redesigning the regime after Meta said it would stop paying for news content in Australia and other markets.ReutersCatch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.