‘Meta is attempting to mislead Australians’: Media bosses, Free TV Australia respond to Meta
Free TV Australia has responded to Meta’s announcement that it will not be renewing any commercial deals with Australian media companies, saying the media giant should be met with swift action by the Australian Government.
Earlier on Friday, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, announced it will shut down Facebook News in Australia from next month, in an “ongoing effort to better align [their] investments”, as well as not continue contracts under the News Media Bargaining Code.
Free TV’s CEO, Bridget Fair, said the announcement is disappointing, but unsurprising.
“We call on the Government to immediately designate all Meta platforms – Facebook, Instagram and reels – under the News Media Bargaining Code, and require it to pay a fair price for the news content shared widely on its platforms,” she said.
“Meta does not employ any Australians to produce news but captures significant value from the sharing of trusted news content as part of its service offering. There has never been a more important time for news media businesses to receive fair remuneration for their trusted news content that is relied upon by all Australians. The ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry Report laid bare the unprecedented levels of market dominance by Facebook and the importance for sustainable local news providers of being fairly remunerated for their content on these platforms.
“The News Media Bargaining Code legislation already gives the Government the power to act on this important issue and it should do by designating Facebook without delay.”
Leaders of major Australian publishers have also responded to Meta, also calling for the Government to designate the media giant.
In a statement given to Mumbrella on Friday afternoon, News Corp Australasia executive chairman, Michael Miller, slammed Meta’s decision.
“Meta is using its immense market power to refuse to negotiate, and the government is right to explore every option for how the Media Bargaining Code’s powers can be used,” he said.
“Meta is attempting to mislead Australians by saying its decision is about the closure of its news tab product, however the vast majority of news on Facebook and Meta is and will continue to be consumed outside this product.
“Meta’s decision will directly impact the viability of Australia’s many small and regional publishers and this is a pressing issue for the government to confront.
“We will work in any way we can to assist the processes the government is putting in place.”
James Warburton, CEO and MD at Seven West Media, added: “The case has not only been made but proven and we welcome Ministers Jones and Rowland’s commitment to the News Media Bargaining Code. We will work constructively with the ACCC and Treasury to ensure their designation.”
Nine Entertainment’s CEO, Mike Sneesby, said the News Media Bargaining Code provides an “appropriate framework” for a fair value exchange, and called on Meta to “negotiate in good faith around the fair compensation for that value exchange”.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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This argument always seemed completely asinine to me. Facebook drives the traffic and gets the benefit of the comments and discussion, because Media Publishers haven’t figured out how to manage a comment section properly and do a p*ss poor job of it. They only go after Facebook because that’s where the money is. They never mention Reddit which as of last month actually has more monthly visits than Instagram and exists primarily for posting news links and hosting discussion of the content contained in those links.
If a local newspaper posts a movie review in their culture section which contains a small synopsis of the movie’s story, should the production company demand that the newspaper pay them a fee? Or argue that people who read the paper are less likely to see the movie because they experienced the movie by reading a one sentence synopsis? Of course not. Because they’re benefitting from the placement of that review, just like Newscorp and Nine benefit from the placement of their content on Social Media.
What they’re complaining about is the fact that nobody clicks on the links because the story is often in the headline because it’s 99% cheap clickbait journalism.
That’s why Newscorp would never go after Reddit btw. They’d lose half of their content, given the entire bullpen seemingly spends their working day trawling r/australia and r/ausfinance for content.
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Hank S – there is a huge difference between Reddit and Facebook. Reddit never tried to deceive publishers into investing so much of their content into the platform only to shift the algorithms away from the publishers – so much that organic reach is basically zero and you have to pay to get any kind of views. Reddit is a straight up clickthrough – which genuinely benefits publishers. Also Reddit never tried to keep creating functions that are literally designed to trap the users on its platforms rather than click through to the publisher – remember the scam that was Facebook AMP?
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I wouldn’t get too attached to the way Reddit operates currently Jay. They’ve already locked down their API and are going IPO this month. with registrations ending tomorrow.
Once they’re public, I’d expect them to operate off the same playbook that Facebook and Google have.
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That’s not really the point though is it?
You were trying to devalue the code by saying publishers are just cherrypicking and rentseeking, and lumping two very different platforms into the same category – literal apples and oranges.
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