For the mandatory code to be fairly executed, there will need to be a balance of negotiating power and commercial benefits for both Australian news organisations and global digital platforms.

Since its announcement in early April and draft release in July 2020, the Australian Federal Government’s new mandatory code for commercial media conglomerates has caused much debate and confusion within the media industry.

Under the new policy drafted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), tech giants such as Google and Facebook will have to pay Australian media companies and acquire distribution rights to publish their news content on their respective platforms. Although planned to come into effect in late 2020, the official legislation of the code has been delayed due to aggressive responses from the commercial digital platforms involved.

What will the new mandatory code entail?

The new mandatory code will force tech giants (that are most used by Australian consumers today) to make commercial deals with the country’s news publishers to gain access to their content. The code will act as a one-sided payment process and will prevent tech giants like Facebook and Google from taking advantage of the local news sites and their content that has traditionally been made freely available to them.

What are the problems with the mandatory code?

Due to the one-sided nature of the payment negotiation process, the mandatory code assumes that Australian news organisations are at too large of a disadvantage when it comes to the transaction of news content. However, most tech giants and select few news corporations do not believe this to be the case.

Australian news organisations have traditionally benefited from having their content published on digital platforms such as Facebook and Google due to such platforms providing them with more visibility and accessibility – as there are an extraordinary large number of users on Facebook and Google. In contrast, tech giants benefit from having free news content published on their platform as the content improves their overall user experience.

From the side of Australian news organisations, the new code is necessary to keep digital platforms from having excess market power and to stop them from profiting unfairly off of news content. However, depending on the negotiated pricing of news content, news organisations run the risk of having no external exposure, as reportedly most of their readers are referred to from such tech giants.

For the mandatory code to be fairly executed, there will need to be a balance of negotiating power and commercial benefits for both Australian news organisations and global digital platforms. To achieve this, the Federal Government will need to further consider the negotiating leeway of both parties and the possibility of a two-way value exchange (as suggested by Google).

How will the media landscape change, moving forward?

While the mandatory code’s enactment is largely set in stone, the details of its rules have not yet been released. Although, there is one thing for sure – the Australian media scape will dramatically change.

Experts predict that tech giants like Google and Facebook lower the amount of news publications available of their platforms (as well as the organisations behind them) and there will be a surge in independent news applications and platforms created by Australian news organisations themselves. There may also be a larger disconnect between contemporary social media and traditional news media.

As 21st century’s digital platforms continues to grow, more questions of content distribution in modern forms of media and traditional forms will also come to light.

Source:
The Guardian
iTMunch
The Guardian
The ABC
The Brisbane Times

Image via The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission..

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