News body says Google offering 'low value deals' to select few media firms

Friday, 26 August 2022

Warner Bros Discovery’s Newshub, Stuff and TVNZ are among the bigger names in the media industry that have yet to strike a deal with Google.

The News Publishers Association has upped the ante in an arm wrestle with internet companies over the funding of the media.

Google launched its Google News Showcase service in New Zealand on Wednesday after reaching deals with NZME, RNZ and four smaller online and local publishers for the supply of curated content to Google’s News and Discovery apps.

But the launch left other major media firms including TV3 owner Warner Bros Discovery, Stuff and TVNZ in the cold.

Google’s regional head of partnerships, Shilpa Jhunjhunwala, said it wanted those companies to be involved.

* Minister gives Google and Meta hurry along to strike deals with media firms

* News Corp Australia, Nine strike Facebook content deals

* Australia passes law to make Google, Facebook pay for news

But News Publishers Association (NPA) general manager Brook Cameron, whose members include Stuff and Otago Daily Times owner Allied Press, said on Friday that Google “hadn't put a deal on the table for us to consider”.

NZME’s deal with Google is rumoured to be worth a few million dollars a year.

“Instead they're offering seemingly low-value agreements to a select few,” she said.

Cameron said the NPA wanted “the same deal for New Zealand as happened in Australia, where transformative and fair agreements have injected significant funds into the industry”.

“We don't understand why Kiwi journalism should be treated any differently,” she said.

Google responded in a statement that it was “proud of this week's launch and looked forward to continuing our conversation with the NPA and other local news media businesses”.

NZME, owner of the New Zealand Herald, is rumoured to be receiving a few million dollars a year to licence and curate content, including some of its paywalled content, for Google.

Rod Sims, a former chairperson of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said on Monday that a law change in Australia that was designed to bring the internet giants to the negotiating table had resulted in Google and Facebook agreeing payments worth more than A$200 million (NZ$225m) a year there.

Google has said the value and exact formula for its content agreements are confidential.

The company announced in 2020 that it had set aside US$1 billion (NZ$1.62b) globally over three years for its Google News Showcase initiative.

If it was funding Australian media to the tune of more than A$162m a year, that would suggest more than a third of that budget had been allocated to Australia.

An Australian media industry source said Google had agreed at least that sum and up to A$210m a year, but was now keen to downplay the cost of its deals in Australia so that they did not become a precedent internationally.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported last year that the deals it had struck with Google and Facebook in the wake of the passage of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code had allowed it to hire more than 50 additional journalists.

Australian media company Nine reported a 66% or A$62m jump in its revenues from digital subscriptions and licences on Thursday, after a much smaller A$17m rise the previous year.

Nine has been contacted for comment on the extent to which that step change may have been attributable to its deals with Google and Facebook.

New Zealand Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said earlier this week that the launch of Google News Showcase represented “a good start” by Google in terms of fulfilling obligations to help fund the media and combat disinformation, but said it was “not enough”, also saying he wanted “quality agreements”.

Jackson said he could decide in about three months whether to recommend a law change here that could be modelled on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code and similar legislation that received in first reading in Canada in April.

Jackson earlier said he had a view on what was a fair dollar outcome in New Zealand, but that was not something he could share.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story implied an Australian media industry source had said Google had agreed to pay A$200m a year to media companies in Australia. That source has since clarified they are confident the sum is between A$166m and A$210m a year. Amended 29/8/2002, 5.42pm.