Google said Friday it had paid Can$100 million to Canadian news outlets to use their content on its platform, as part of a deal with the government to offset loss of advertising revenues.
Canada passed the Online News Act in 2023, joining Australia and a few countries in Europe in establishing policies to force tech platforms to compensate struggling news publishers.
Google and Meta, which together control about 80 percent of all advertising revenue in Canada, had been accused of draining cash away from traditional news organisations while using news content for free.
The Google funds (US$69 million) were transferred to the Canadian Journalism Collective, a non-profit set up to distribute the money, a spokesperson for the tech giant confirmed.
California-based Google also signalled to AFP it planned to continue the arrangement that would see it make another payment at the end of 2025.
Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, an organization of major publishers and broadcasters, said the landmark deal was “far superior” than similar arrangements in other jurisdictions, with Canadian news groups expected to get up to Can$20,000 per journalist.
The funding, he said, will give newsrooms a much-needed boost “to produce more high-quality coverage of our democratic institutions,” while Google “benefits tremendously from the fact-based, fact-checked content our journalists produce.”
The Canadian act aims to support the local news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade.
Meta’s Facebook and Instagram blocked news content in Canada to avoid having to compensate media companies.
Google had threatened to do the same before announcing the funding deal, which was approved by Canada’s broadcast regulator in October.
Under the terms, broadcasters will get 30 percent of the Google funds, while the rest is to be shared by news publishers.
Google also made a deal last year with the US state of California to pay to help keep local news organizations afloat.
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