Commercial Radio Australia’s (CRA) 261 member stations will soon be able to collectively negotiate payments for news content with Google and Facebook.
The ACCC announced today that it had issued a draft determination proposing to authorise collective bargaining for CRA.
Such a move would give stations the ability to discuss payments with one another – something which could breach competition laws without the appropriate approvals.
“This authorisation gives CRA the opportunity to seek payment from Facebook and Google for its members’ news content and for its members to engage in discussions with each other about those negotiations,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
The ACCC also said it has also granted interim authorisation enabling CRA to commence collective negotiations while it continues with the authorisation process.
CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner said the approval will allow the industry association to start acting as “the bargaining agent” for its members.
“CRA now has the opportunity to act as the bargaining agent for CRA members to secure fair compensation for individual publishers for content they produce that appears on the digital platforms, to reflect the value of that content and the resources required to produce that content,” Warner said.
“Negotiated outcomes providing compensation from Google and Facebook will help to sustain commercial radio stations in Australia, many of whom provide small and local communities with regional news and information.”
The proposed authorisation excludes Nine, which has already reached an agreement with both Google and Facebook.
The ACCC recently approved a similar collective bargaining agreement for Country Press Australia (CPA) members, which has allowed 81 regional news publishers to start exchanging information with one another about their negotiations with the tech giants.
Despite Facebook, Google and the government agreeing to the News Media Bargaining Code earlier this year, the platforms are yet to actually be designated under the code, meaning these sorts of collective bargaining agreements are required for smaller outlets to move ahead with negotiations.
The News Media Bargaining Code was introduced earlier this year to give news outlets to ability to negotiate payments for news content with Google and Facebook.
So far major media companies such as Nine, News Corp and Seven West Media have secured agreements with the tech giants, with some deals believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars each year.
