CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA) – Tech giant Google on Friday launched a platform in Australia providing news it has paid for. With this, it has struck its own content deals with publishers so as to show legislation proposed by Canberra to make payments is unnecessary.
Having only rolled out in Brazil and Germany before, the News Showcase platform was originally scheduled for launch last June. However, Alphabet Inc-owned Google prolonged plans when Canberra set forth to make it a legal requirement for Google and Facebook to make payments to Australian media companies for content, which hasn’t happened anywhere else in the world.
The tech firm said the legislation was “unworkable” and would prompt them to withdraw from the country altogether if implemented.
Friday’s launch of News Showcase in Australia will have it make payment to seven domestic outlets, including the Canberra Times, to use their content.
Google said on Friday in a statement it was expecting to strike agreements with more Australian publishers, whose position has been strengthened by Canberra’s aggressive stance against Facebook and Google.
“This provides an alternative to the model put forward by the Australian government,” said Derek Wilding, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Media Transition.
“What remains to be seen is if larger publishers sign on to the product,” said Wilding.
Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Google’s approach had been “constructive” in recent days during private meetings.
“The Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) and myself and (Communications Minister) Paul Fletcher had a very constructive discussion with the head of Google just yesterday,” Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
“In that discussion … they re-committed to Australia, we re-committed [to the legislation].”