Seven West Media, an Australian newspaper and television firm, has reportedly signed a content deal with Facebook Inc. and Google LLC in the wake of recent landmark laws that have enabled the industry to obtain new revenue sources and adapt to the internet era.

Australia’s largest diversified media broadcaster and publisher will be supplying content for Alphabet Inc.’s News Showcase platform and a similar Facebook product for a period of five and three years respectively.

The deal signifies that the U.S technology giants will now be paying Australia's two largest traditional news outlets for their content. It also denotes a complete change of sentiments, from an absolute refusal and protests to operate in the country after laws forcing them to pay for traffic-driving links were put into effect.

Chief Executive Officer of Seven West Media, James Warburton reportedly said that the partnerships have been made possible by the enforcement of the Media Bargaining Code, which allows the government to intervene if domestic media companies are unable to reach an agreement with large internet providers.

Several other Australian media outlets, including the country’s national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp, have signed content deals with Google or confirmed that they are willing to do deals with Facebook. This had led to the stoppage of all third-party content for a week during February to protest the laws.

Nine Entertainment Co Holdings, which contends with Seven West Media in broadcasting, and publishes the Sydney Morning Herald has reportedly signed a Google deal but is yet to finalize agreements with Facebook.

Australian Community Media has also signed a letter of intent with social networking giant Facebook to offer news content from its newspapers, such as the Newcastle Herald and the Canberra Times.

Source Link –

https://www.reuters.com/technology/australias-seven-west-media-finalises-news-content-deals-with-google-facebook-2021-05-03/