The review said it received several proposals for amending the criteria to designate digital platforms, but said these would have “negative consequences”.
The review reveals that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, struck 13 deals in total, far fewer than Google. The search giant struck at least 23 commercial agreements with news outlets, and a collective deal with another 24 smaller publishers.
Nine Entertainment Co, owner of this masthead, has agreements with Meta and Google, as do organisations including News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian, the ABC and Guardian Australia.
Meta stopped negotiations on new deals halfway through 2021 and failed to sign agreements with the SBS or academic news site The Conversation.
“The budget to support content agreements for these products was limited and it was therefore inevitable that some news businesses would not receive a deal,” Meta’s submission reads. It would not reveal which 13 companies it had struck deals with.
The review said it had been limited by both news businesses and web giants refusing to disclose exactly what benefit they received from the deals they struck because of confidentiality clauses.
It nonetheless concluded that the laws had helped address a bargaining power imbalance and relayed submissions from media companies that at least a major portion of the funding had gone toward hiring journalists.
“On the evidence available to the review, at least some of these agreements have enabled news businesses to, in particular, employ additional journalists and make other valuable investments to assist their operations.”
The government has not decided whether it will adopt any of the recommendations. Meta was approached for comment.
In a statement, Google’s director of government affairs and public policy Lucinda Longcroft said the tech giant had expanded its contribution to Australian news significantly in the past two years.
“Over the last two years, we’ve furthered our significant contribution to the Australian news industry by…signing agreements with more than 70 Australian news businesses, representing 200 mastheads across the country,” she said.
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