Business of Media
Big tech should not be above the law of the land
The Albanese government has quickly followed up its ban on social media for under-16s and the new powers it granted the competition watchdog to fine tech companies for anticompetitive behaviour, writes the AFR.
The News Bargaining Incentive unveiled on Thursday escalates Labor’s crackdown on big tech. Large tech companies that generate more than $250 million a year of annual revenue in Australia will be levied with a new multimillion-dollar tax charge.
The challenge for governments worldwide seeking to regulate global big tech is to uphold national sovereignty and make obeying the laws of the land part of the companies’ social licence to operate. The News Bargaining Incentive is Labor’s attempt to force tech companies to comply with Australia’s existing world-first laws designed to preserve the sustainability of our news media.
Labor sends tech giants back to news negotiating table
Big tech companies will potentially face fines of hundreds of millions of dollars if they refuse to strike commercial agreements with Australian news businesses for the use of their content, writes The Australian’s James Madden and David Ross.
The federal government announced on Thursday the establishment of the News Bargaining Incentive – a policy proposal that aims to compel digital giants including Alphabet (parent company of Google), Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and ByteDance (TikTok) to enter into deals with Australian news publishers, big and small.
In February this year, Meta announced it wouldn’t be renewing its commercial deals with Australian news publishers, which were worth an estimated $70m a year to the industry.
In announcing the policy, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said while the 2021 media bargaining code sought to address the imbalance of bargaining power between digital platforms and news media publishers, it had limitations – namely, it allowed platforms to avoid their financial obligations to media outlets by simply removing news.
Rupert Murdoch visits firebombed Melbourne synagogue
Rupert Murdoch has visited the Adass Israel synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea, six days after it was firebombed in what is being investigated as a terrorist attack, reports SMH’s Calum Jaspan.
He visited alongside his wife, Elena Zhukova, shortly after making an appearance at News Corp’s Melbourne headquarters, where he met former colleagues and executives. It was the first time he has been seen in public since losing his bid to shift the terms of his family trust.
Murdoch was joined by Adass Israel community members at the damaged synagogue and long-time News Corp columnist and TV host Andrew Bolt.
Murdoch, who is making his first visit to Australia in six years, spent several hours at News Corp’s Melbourne offices on Thursday after arriving in Australia last week.
Australia’s media movers and shakers on the biggest threats to journalism
It has been a dire, unpredictable year for the Australian media. Jobs have been cut en masse, outlets grappled with ideals of objectivity, newspapers prosecuted campaigns that could see wholesale changes to how audiences interact with news, new outlets formed, others died, there were landmark defamation decisions and investigations into newsroom culture, and an executive allegedly shoulder-charged a reporter, reports Crikey’s Daanyel Saeed.
After a year of volatility, job cuts, uncertainty and brilliance, Crikey chased down Australia’s biggest media figures — from journalists to editors to defamation lawyers to academics — to pick their brains about our industry. What they shared has formed the backbone of a multi-part Crikey series, Movers and Shakers, holding a mirror up to the industry and asking it to reflect on itself.
Entertainment
TV of the year: 19 shows and moments we couldn’t stop thinking about
End-of-year TV lists don’t always capture the moments that kept us thinking or made us laugh, groan or cry. With that in mind, the SMH asked their keen TV watchers to name their favourite bits of the year, reports the SMH.
Radio
Good chat, nothing more to say: Kim Williams meets angry ABC radio staff
ABC chair Kim Williams has met a small group of ABC Radio Sydney staff who wrote to the broadcaster’s board last week incensed over a number of high-profile talent changes reports SMH’s Calum Jaspan.
Williams and a delegation of employees from the radio station met on Thursday to discuss the changes that have left staff “bewildered and concerned”, as they wrote in a letter seen by this masthead.
Williams said he had an “open and constructive discussion” with the delegation.
“A free-flow exchange ensued where issues and concerns were identified, and candid responses were offered,” Williams said.
“I welcomed the collegiate spirit and the passion for the produced work and audiences evident throughout our discussion. Nothing further to say.”
ABC local radio stations have endured a challenging year, with ABC Sydney and Melbourne both delivering their worst market shares on record.
Sport
Inside story: How $68m payment to clubs saved the NRL’s PNG expansion deal
The NRL’s existing clubs have been told they will each receive a $1.75 million windfall next year – part of a $68 million golden handshake over the next five years – in return for welcoming a Papua New Guinean team into the premiership in 2028 reports The Australian’s Brent Read and Michael Carayannis.
This masthead can reveal that club bosses were updated on expansion at a meeting on Thursday morning only moments before the PNG bid was confirmed at a briefing involving the Prime Ministers of Australia and PNG.
A sizeable chunk of the $600 million investment from the federal government, which paved the way for expansion to take place, will be shared with the game’s 17 clubs in return for diluting their membership of the ARL Commission.
Club bosses have been told they will each receive $1.75 million in 2025, another $1 million in 2026, $750,000 in 2027 and then $250,000 in 2028 and 2029.
All told, clubs will receive $4 million each over the next five years as head office looks to assuage their concerns over expansion of the game and ensure they receive financial compensation for allowing another team to become a member of the ARL Commission.