UPDATE 2-Murdoch's News Corp reaches three-year deal with Facebook in Australia

Reuters · 03/15/2021 21:20
UPDATE 2-Murdoch's News Corp reaches three-year deal with Facebook in Australia

Adds background details, News Corp CEO quote

- News Corp NWSA.O reached a three-year agreement with Facebook Inc FB.O in Australia, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company said on Monday, declaring victory in a battle over how news organizations are compensated by big tech.

Last month, Australia's parliament passed a law that requires Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google and Facebook Inc FB.O to pay media companies for content on their platforms, after robust negotiations in which Facebook blocked all news content in the 13th-largest economy. nL4N2KN31U

The step taken by the Australian government has drawn global attention as countries including Canada and Britain consider similar steps to protect local news media.

"The agreement with Facebook is a landmark in transforming the terms of trade for journalism, and will have a material and meaningful impact on our Australian news businesses," News Corp Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson said.

"This digital denouement has been more than a decade in the making."

News Corp in February struck a deal with Google to develop a subscription platform, share advertising revenue and develop video journalism by YouTube. nL4N2KN31U

The Facebook agreement announced on Monday involves News Corp's The Australian national newspaper, and metropolitan papers such as The Daily Telegraph in New South Wales. Sky News Australia has also reached a new agreement with Facebook, News Corp said.

The deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, expands upon an agreement reached in October, 2019 in which Facebook paid News Corp's U.S. publications for access to additional stories to Facebook News.



(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

((UdaySampath.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S.+1 646 223 8780; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sampath_uday ;))