News Bargaining Incentive makes ground in Parliament: 'Win for journalism'

Free TV Australia has issued a statement on the passage through Parliament of the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI) and the News Journalism Payments scheme, calling it “a critical step toward ensuring global technology platforms contribute fairly to the Australian journalism they rely on.”

The NBI closes a loophole in the News Media Bargaining Code that allowed digital platforms to withdraw news services and avoid their obligations, while encouraging platforms to strike genuine commercial deals with news businesses.

Michael Miller, Executive Chairman, News Corp Australasia, said in a statement:

“Australian news organisations now get the much-needed investment to continue delivering professional journalism vital to our democracy and local communities. 

"This again shows the Australian Government’s willingness to be a world leader in developing policies that benefit everyday Australians and the public interest.”

Free TV CEO Bridget Fair was also positive about the advancement, releasing an official statement:

“This is a significant milestone. The NBI puts a clear, workable mechanism in place to ensure that global tech platforms pay for the Australian journalism that they profit from. 

"It will deliver real support for the trusted news services Australians rely on every day.

“Trusted news is essential to our democracy. Free TV has long advocated for a mechanism to allow Australian media companies to negotiate fair value for their content. 

"We thank Minister Wells and Assistant Treasurer Mulino for delivering this outcome and look forward to working with the Government on its implementation.”

Michael Miller

We asked a lawyer to break down what the News Bargaining Incentive really means

In April this year, Mediaweek spoke to lawyer Nicholas Stewart, who is a partner at Dowson Turco Lawyers, to learn more.

"Social media platforms rely on Australians using their platforms to access news. Australians are somewhat unique in their use of social media to access news articles. News companies want social media platforms to pay for their content because the platforms profit from Australians using them for news.

"Similarly, news organisations rely on social media platforms to push their content to Australians. The basic principle is that news organisations want social media platforms to pay for the work of journalists who contribute to their revenue by providing popular content.

"The government is proposing to tax social media platforms that don’t reach agreements with news organisations. This is because social media companies once had agreements with platforms, but those agreements have since expired.

"The tax will be up to 2.25 per cent on Australian revenue.

"It will be cheaper for social media platforms to reach agreements with news organisations. These platforms make enormous profits from Australian users, and most of the revenue is sent offshore. This is effectively the cost of doing business for social media platforms that know Australians access much of their news on their platforms.

"This is important because Australians should be able to read and watch Australian news content on social media, if that is where we prefer to access it.

"When Meta walked away from negotiations two years ago, it blocked hundreds of pages that it designated as “news” organisations. My law firm even had its social accounts blocked because our social media team shares a lot of news content.

“In a time of mistrust in government and of misinformation and disinformation from some global media channels, the government says that investing in Australian journalism is critical to the industry's integrity, and I agree with that sentiment.”