Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp announced today (Feb 17) announced that it has agreed to an multi-year partnership with Google to provide content from its news sites around the world in return for "significant payments" by Google.

The three-year agreement also includes the development of a subscription platform, the sharing of ad revenue via Google's ad technology services, the cultivation of audio journalism and meaningful investments in innovative video journalism by YouTube.

Under the three-year deal announced Wednesday, News Corp media brands including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the New York Post in U.S; The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun in the U.K.; and The Australian, Sky News, news.com.au and other local titles in Australia, will be featured in the Google News Showcase.

Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, said that the deal would have “a positive impact on journalism around the globe as we have firmly established that there should be a premium for premium journalism.

“I would like to thank Sundar Pichai and his team at Google who have shown a thoughtful commitment to journalism that will resonate in every country. This has been a passionate cause for our company for well over a decade and I am gratified that the terms of trade are changing, not just for News Corp, but for every publisher." he added.

News Corp's deal comes as a surprise given that Murdoch-owned media behemoth has been a huge critic of Google. It has often called for news regulators around the world to break up Google and frequently criticised it for allegedly ripping off publishers and cannibalising revenues.

The media giant also has long been running a campaign to force Australian government to pass a legislation requiring online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for displaying and linking to their content.