Australia Orders Facebook, Google To Share Revenue With Media Companies As Advertisement Revenue Crashes

The Australian government has ordered global digital platforms like Facebook and Google to share revenues with media companies amid a crash in advertising revenue given the disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Press Trust of India has reported.

As per Treasurer Josh Frydenberg who announced this decision, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will release draft rules by July end. These rules will specify a fair compensation which should be paid by the tech companies to news media organisations for sourcing their content.

They will also lay out penal provisions and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Australia as a result seeks to be the first country to implement such a revenue sharing model. France and Spain had earlier attempted to implement a similar proposal but failed.

Earlier the ACCC had attempted to get the tech companies and media organisations to agree to a payment agreement, but was not successful.

The revenue sharing code, which as per the earlier plan was set to be finalised by November 2020 may be delayed due to Covid-19, but a draft should be ready by July-end.

Currently, Google enjoys a 47 per cent market share in Australia’s online advertising market followed by Facebook which is at 24 per cent.