By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – Since Google has no current plans to work with Canadian broadcasters and pay them for the local news linked through the tech giant, Google’s recent news announcement shows the need for comprehensive legislative reform, says the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
Last week, Google announced new agreements with a number of print publishers which will see the dominant search and digital advertising company pay publishers (an undisclosed amount) for its news in Google News Showcase and launch programs to train 5,000 journalists.
A Google Canada spokesperson told Cartt.ca in an email the company has no plans right now to expand the program to include broadcasters.
“Showcase is focused on comprehensive, general interest news with a large focus on local print and digital newspapers. Of the hundreds of publications under license for News Showcase, over 90% are considered local, regional, or community newspapers,” said Google’s Lauren Skelly in an email. “Depending on the landscape of a particular market, we may be open to holding conversations with a broader cross section of publishers that deliver unique value to news consumers but today, comprehensive general interest news is our focus. We remain in active conversations with Canadian publishers and hope to announce more partners soon.”
This is tough to take for the CAB. Google’s announcement to support “a select number of print and online news publishers – and no broadcasters – only underlines the urgent need for a more comprehensive legislative solution to address a fair valuation of news content for online platforms,” said CAB president Kevin Desjardins (above). “It should not be left to the foreign web giants to determine which Canadian communities should have their vital news sources compensated.”
While Bill C-10 (the stalled and likely doomed bill to modernize the Broadcasting Act), doesn’t contemplate tech giants being forced to pay for broadcast news linked through them and is more about entertainment content and streamers, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault had, earlier this year, promised legislation specific to the news business and forcing Big Tech to contribute, but it never made it to the notice paper in the session which ended last week.
“Providing news organizations – including broadcasters – with the tools they require to negotiate fairly with the web giants is essential to helping ensure that the broadest group of Canada’s news and information producers are appropriately compensated for the use and redistribution of their content,” Desjardins continued.
“Canada’s television and radio broadcasters remain the most popular and trusted sources for news in this country, and any solution to help support credible and reliable information gathering and dissemination needs to include broadcasters.”
