Latest / Best of Business / Shayne Currie: NZME editor-at-large on Google threatening to pull out of New Zealand over Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill

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Shayne Currie: NZME editor-at-large on Google threatening to pull out of New Zealand over Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: There are reports that Google is threatening to pull out
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  Speaker 2: of New Zealand altogether because of the government's plan to
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  Speaker 2: make it pay media companies for news content. Clearly not
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  Speaker 2: happy about this, ends it me. Media columnist Shane Curry
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  Speaker 2: broke the news this morning and he's with us. Now, Hey, Shane, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: They're not going to pull out, are they?
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  Speaker 3: I don't think so, but you know, in any negotiations
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  Speaker 3: like this, they will certainly be reviewing their stants. I've
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  Speaker 3: actually said publicly in their submission to Parliament for the
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  Speaker 3: Fair Digital News Bill that they will need to review
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  Speaker 3: operations in New Zealand if the bill goes ahead. Now,
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  Speaker 3: of course we know the bill is going to go ahead.
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  Speaker 3: National has picked it up and so Google quite rightly,
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  Speaker 3: quite expectedly, is now maneuvering its position.
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  Speaker 2: But review operations could mean anything, couldn't It could mean
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  Speaker 2: taking away the news tabs or whatever they do, pulling
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  Speaker 2: out all together. What's the most.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely right now, they have a lot of deals
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  Speaker 3: with media companies are very proud of those and that
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  Speaker 3: includes you know, the likes have entered me stuff spin
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  Speaker 3: off newsroom. They all have deals where they get a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of money to display their news and what
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  Speaker 3: they call the Google News Showcase. The publishers argue, although
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  Speaker 3: none of them are actually talking because they have lots
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  Speaker 3: of non disclosure agreements, but industry sources are telling me that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, they expect the publishers expect to receive a
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  Speaker 3: lot more money as a result of the Fair Digital
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  Speaker 3: News Bill. And so that's why, you know, they've been
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  Speaker 3: amping for that for so long. That's why the government
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  Speaker 3: has listened, and that's why Google is angry.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Now, Google has up to now been the good guys,
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  Speaker 2: right because Facebook have been the bad guys, shutting down
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  Speaker 2: operations and places like Canada. Google's been the good guys.
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  Speaker 2: Are they putting that at risk with threats like this?
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  Speaker 3: I think Google have certainly, compared to Meta, compared to Facebook,
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  Speaker 3: have certainly been a lot more forthright and supportive of
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  Speaker 3: the New Zealand media industry. And that's just as a
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  Speaker 3: casual observer, as a media columnist, you know, I talk
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  Speaker 3: to it sex all the time. And Google have certainly
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  Speaker 3: been supportive. But as I say, that's also there's been
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  Speaker 3: a lot of pr around that. If you look at
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  Speaker 3: the deals that they've done in Australia and even Canada,
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot more money that's at state here that
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  Speaker 3: can be I think they made a million. They made
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  Speaker 3: a billion dollars last year in New Zealand. We're talking
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  Speaker 3: here at the moment. They fund New Zealand media companies
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  Speaker 3: with their different initiatives and so thing to the tune
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  Speaker 3: of just a few several million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: Really only several not even tear.
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  Speaker 3: Again, it's all part of a non disclosure agreement. No
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  Speaker 3: one is telling me the.
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  Speaker 2: Exists are title, aren't they really?
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  Speaker 3: But what is interesting now is Google is going straight
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  Speaker 3: to Goldsmith, straight to Luxen and writing to them directly
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  Speaker 3: about you know, even though the bill is now passing
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  Speaker 3: through Parliament, Google is still in their ears. The cabinet
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  Speaker 3: paper hasn't been released. It was expected to be released
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  Speaker 3: last month. The government's holding off and releasing it for
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  Speaker 3: some reason. And so we've got Official Information Act requests
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  Speaker 3: in for that kind of thing. But certainly the officials
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  Speaker 3: and willing to know scrambling.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me what you think, okay, this hasn't worked. I
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  Speaker 2: would argue in any anywhere else where it's been tried,
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  Speaker 2: Australia and Canada is work now.
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  Speaker 3: It is working. It is working where I know there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of our controversy about a lot of comment,
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  Speaker 3: but there's certainly a lot more money you now have
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  Speaker 3: been given to the media companies. Where's individually Australia Canada.
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  Speaker 3: You can't say the pool of money and Canada.
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  Speaker 2: I mean you've got mixed, tiny little media outlets falling
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  Speaker 2: over because then I've got the Facebook train, They've got
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  Speaker 2: a hunt.
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  Speaker 3: There's now a pool. Even though Google is exempt from
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  Speaker 3: that law. Yeah, they have still agreed to one hundred
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  Speaker 3: million dollars a year to publishers in Canada. I know
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  Speaker 3: they're exempt, but that is one hundred million dollars more
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  Speaker 3: than they were getting previous.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So you would argue that in both of these
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  Speaker 2: jurisdictions this law is.
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  Speaker 3: Well even though Google and Australia's doing their own individual deals. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: as a result of that legislation, Google has had to
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  Speaker 3: come to the negotiation table.
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  Speaker 2: And it will work here, yes, okay in my view, Well,
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  Speaker 2: why not have a view you've been around long enough
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  Speaker 2: to have a view. Shane, thank you. I appreciate your
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  Speaker 2: take on it. That's Shane Curry who's in Zimy's Media columnists.
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  Speaker 2: You can catch as media inside it all the time.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if it comes out irregularly. It just
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  Speaker 2: comes out all the time and it's brilliant.
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