By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC wants to know whether it should exempt Google from having to negotiate with news publishers to host content for five years and thereby lock-in an agreement the platform struck with a news collective earlier this month.
Google held an open call, as it’s required under the new Online News Act, between February 28 and April 30 to field prospective eligible news businesses that want a piece of the $100 million it agreed to distribute every year to host news content. The process resulted in Google reaching an agreement with the Canadian Journalism Collective (CJC) on June 6, to the concern of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
A day later, Google filed a request to the regulator to be exempt from mandatory negotiations for the five-year term, as is its right to request under the law.
The CRTC released the consultation Thursday asking the public whether it should approve Google’s request and, if so, under what terms and conditions, if any. If the CRTC finds that Google has met the criteria for an exemption order, it will have to determine how long the order will last, up to a maximum of five years; which provisions of the rules it should be exempted from; and if any conditions should be attached to the order.
Specific inquiries include whether Google met the requirements for the open call; whether the exemption period should be five years; whether it would be appropriate to require an “additional mechanism” to allow more news businesses that didn’t enter the initial call to receive compensation; whether the CRTC should include a condition of exemption that forces Google to conduct a periodic open call to add news businesses that have not previously submitted an attestation; and, if required, how frequently additional news businesses should be able to be added to receive compensation through the CJC (e.g. should it be a single additional opportunity in the entire five-year period or one every year of the term?).
The deadline to comment is July 29.
If the regulator finds that Google has not met the exemption order criteria, it could issue an interim exemption order to give the platform time to come into compliance. In that case, the regulator is asking if it should require an amendment to the agreement to ensure payments would be made as a condition of the interim order.
The CRTC is also asking whether, as a condition of exemption, Google should provide funding for public interest participation in such proceedings; whether it should provide funding to a third party such as the Broadcasting Participation Fund to fund that participation; what procedures should be used to collect and distribute said funding if it is required; and what amount of public interesting funding would be reasonable.
Under the proposed agreement, the CJC, as group representative, will take steps to distribute to businesses the $100 million every year for the rest of the term. The organization must ensure that the news businesses are eligible, that the funds are distributed in a timely way, provide regular disclosures as to the money’s distribution, and recoup funds given to a news business that hasn’t given accurate attestations.
During the open call, Google said it received more than 600 form responses representing 1435 publications “involving a range of news outlets in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, reflecting a diversity of business models that provide services to all markets and diverse populations, including local and regional markets in every province and territory, anglophone and francophone communities, and Black and other racialized communities.”
Google added it chose the organization based on criteria including diversity of representation, governance structure, transparency, and low administrative fees.
