NEW DELHI: In a historic move, Google will now pay $75 million to Canadian news media every year in return for distributing their content. Print media receives the lion's share of remuneration (around 63%), followed by radio and other media.
The agreement between Canada and Google is part of the Online News Act, which is aimed at supporting a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flood of advertising dollars and hundreds of publication closures over the last decade.
After years of tough negotiations and pressure tactics that saw many social media platforms block news content in Canada to avoid paying compensation to media companies, Ottawa and Google recently announced a “historic” agreement that would see the tech giant pay compensation to Canadian media companies the loss of advertising revenue.
“Canada has achieved something historic,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge told reporters.
The bulk of the payout will go to the print media as they “really rely on online platforms” to distribute their content, an official said.
Meta, the Facebook parent company, which is also affected by the new legislation, continues to reject the text, calling it “fundamentally flawed.”
“We need an Atmanirbhar news industry”
There has also been some discussion in India about sharing advertising revenue.
In February this year, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi had floated an idea that tech giants would have to share the advertising revenue they earn from publishing news reports with media organizations that publish the original content.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session, Modi said newspapers and television channels had lost advertising revenue after big technology companies entered the market.
He added that print and electronic media companies spend thousands of crores of rupees on creating news content and the main source of income for traditional print and electronic media is advertising revenue.
The MP also submitted that Google India's advertising revenue was Rs 24,927 crore in 2021-22. He also said that Facebook's advertising revenue was Rs 16,189 crore in 2021-22 – an increase of 75% over the previous year.
“These big tech companies don’t spend money on content creation. But show the ready-made content for free… an Atmanirbhar Bharat needs the Atmanirbhar news industry,” he said, adding that a provision should be made in this regard in the Digital India Act.
What is the Digital India Act?
The proposed Digital India Act will replace the 23-year-old Information and Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and aims to regulate platforms, user harm and ethical use of technology, among other things.
The bill has been under consideration since March this year and although discussions to publish the draft legislation were underway in June, the bill has yet to be published.
On November 30, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for IT, said a bill may be introduced after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Unfortunately, I don't think we can reach the legislative window before the elections because we need a lot of consultations, debates and discussions about it,” he said, adding that the government has a roadmap for legislation. political goals and the political principles for security and trust.
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