A second major commercial news outlet in Australia has struck a deal with Google in less than a week, as the tech giant moves to pre-empt an impending media payment law.
On Monday, Seven West Media signed a deal believed to be worth $30 million per year.
Facebook Australia has yet to announce any deals.
The flurry of deals comes as the Australian government’s “world-leading” News Media Bargaining Code is expected to pass through Parliament in the next week, after it received bipartisan support from the Labor Party.
The Code will legislate a framework for eligible news media outlets in Australia to enter negotiations with Google and Facebook to pay for their content.
The framework also includes a final “baseball arbitration” clause if negotiations fail, where both parties submit their best offers, and an independent adjudicator will select the best one.
Initially, the tech giants resisted the new law and even threatened to remove news content from their feeds altogether. Google upped the ante saying it would consider removing their search engine service from the country.
However, in the last few weeks, Big Tech’s top management have engaged in a series of talks with the Australian prime minister and treasurer.
Since then, the tone of the tech giants has changed.
Google and Facebook have been encouraged to strike deals outside the Code, but the Code will act as a safety net if agreements cannot be reached.
Over 121 French news outlets have also agreed to a three-year US$76 million deal with Google.
Despite the fanfare, experts do not expect Google and Facebook’s compensation to prop up the long-term decline of revenues for media companies.