Today, CMT releases a new report that explores two ways of supporting Australian news. It responds to developments in the operation of the News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC) – in particular, the likely imminent failure of a key plank of the NMBC.
The first round success of the NMBC was seen in agreements that Google and Meta made with Australian publishers three years ago. By entering these agreements, the platforms were able to avoid ‘designation’ by the Treasurer, meaning that the formal scheme for mandatory bargaining and adjudication under the NMBC was never engaged. But the first cycle of agreements started to expire earlier this year and Meta announced that it – unlike Google – would not be embarking on a second round. It also said that if the government proceeded to designate it under the NMBC, it would consider removing news from Facebook in Australia.
Meta’s departure from the Australian news market would not only leave a revenue gap for publishers who had funding in the first round; it would mean these and other news businesses relying on distribution through Facebook could have their business model severely disrupted.
This is the policy problem addressed in our new report. We commissioned Julie Eisenberg, a consultant who has worked in senior legal and policy roles including with news media, to look into two other approaches. The first – an industry levy – is an idea we raised back in the development of the NMBC in 2020. The second – provisions to ensure continued presence and accessibility for news content or services such as a must-carry rule – has been raised more recently in industry discussions over the future of the NMBC. Both were addressed in the Second Interim Report of the Joint Select Committee on social media and Australia Society, published last month.
Our report looks in detail at local and international examples of levies and must-carry type rules. Julie has identified a number of design elements that would need to be considered if developing one or both of these mechanisms for the Australian environment. This is likely to be as a package of measures and could exist as additions to the NMBC, rather than as a complete replacement.
From the outset, CMT has encouraged consideration of a levy on digital platforms as an alternative to mandatory bargaining. But when we started this latest research, I had some reservations about the suitability of ‘must-carry’. This research has convinced me that we probably need both. We already require telecommunications companies to contribute to the cost of providing universal service in Australia, and we require pay TV to invest in Australian drama; this rationale could be applied to digital platforms for news. And by looking at the must-carry approach within a broader context of content rules that already apply in Australia and overseas, the report shows that policy mechanisms to promote media presence on digital platforms need to work alongside a scheme for remuneration of news content. We need trusted news sources to be present, visible and discoverable, just as we want Australian drama to be available on entertainment platforms. It seems Meta has decided to disregard the social obligations it has as a key distributor of information in Australia. The risks that come with this decision and with other practices that reduce the visibility of reliable news sources deserve the attention of policy-makers.
We’re publishing the report today to allow its ideas to be considered as industry and government continue to analyse the effects of Meta’s withdrawal from the NMBC, and ahead of anticipated policy changes in the new year.
Derek Wilding, CMT Co-Director