Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said it has struck a deal for Google to pay it for news as the digital giant rushes to negotiate generous deals with Australian media companies.
Australian politicians are considering forcing digital giants into such agreements.
News Corp said it would receive “significant payments” from Google in the three-year agreement, which includes heavyweight news organisations throughout the English-speaking world, such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, the Times and the Sun in the UK, and local papers, the Australian and Sky News in Australia.
The deal spans audio and video and News Corp will also get an ad revenue share from Google.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson thanked Australian officials in a statement, saying they “have stood firm for their country and for journalism”.
Major Australian media organisation Seven West Media had struck a deal with Google to pay for journalism earlier this week.
Its rival Nine Entertainment is reportedly close to announcing its own agreement.
Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg confirmed earlier on Wednesday that the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation was also in negotiations and planned to spend any Google revenue on regional journalism.
“There are negotiations going on with all the major players and the minor players at the moment,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“This will help sustain public interest journalism in this country for years to come.”
Mr Frydenberg said “none of these deals would be happening” if not for proposed legislation to create a so-called News Media Bargaining Code.
Politicians were debating amended legislation to create the code in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The code would create an arbitration panel to set a binding price for news in cases where Google and Facebook failed to reach deals with media companies whose original journalism they linked to.
“Everything that I have heard from parties, both in the news media business and in terms of digital platforms, is that these are generous deals,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“These are fair deals. These are good deals. These are good deals for the Australian media businesses.”
Google and Facebook, which take a combined 81% of online advertising in Australia, have condemned the code as unworkable.
Google says it might make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the code is introduced. Facebook said it might block Australians from sharing news if the platform has to pay for news.
Mr Frydenberg said after weekend talks with Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet, and its subsidiary Google, that he was convinced the platforms “do want to enter into these commercial arrangements”.
“We have held the line and held it strongly,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“And the digital giants have been left in no doubt about the … government’s resolve.”
Google confirmed it was “in discussions with publishers large and small”. It did not provide News Corp deal terms.
Facebook is also seeking news deals, but said it did not have “anything to confirm at this time”.
The Australian deals with Google are being negotiated under Google’s own model, News Showcase.
The company has reached pay deals with more than 450 publications globally since it launched News Showcase in October.
