MONTREAL: Canada’s print media will obtain practically two-thirds of an annual C$100 million (US$75 million) cost from Google to the nation’s information retailers in change for distribution of their content material, the federal authorities introduced on Friday (Dec 15).
On the finish of November, after months of negotiations, Ottawa and Google introduced a “historic” settlement, the place the tech big would pay Canadian media firms compensation for the lack of promoting income.
“The share that tv and radio will obtain is capped at 30 per cent, that of CBC/Radio-Canada (the Canadian public broadcaster) at 7 per cent, which leaves the remaining 63 per cent for the written press,” a federal official advised journalists at a briefing.
Many of the payout will go to the print media as a result of it’s “actually dependent” on on-line platforms to distribute its content material, the official added.
“Canada has completed one thing historic,” Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge advised reporters.
She recalled that “newsrooms are experiencing a disaster which impacts journalism, a basis of our democracy.”
The settlement between Canada and Google is a part of the On-line Information Act, which goals to help a struggling Canadian information sector that has seen a flight of promoting {dollars} and a whole lot of publications closed within the final decade. It comes into pressure on Tuesday.
Meta, the Fb mother or father firm which can be affected by the brand new laws, nonetheless opposes the textual content which it referred to as “basically flawed”.
Since Aug 1, Fb and Instagram have blocked information content material in Canada to keep away from having to compensate media firms.
Many Canadian media retailers are financially struggling, with a number of saying layoff plans in current weeks.