ABC joins calls for tech titans to pay for news

ABC managing director David Anderson says the public broadcaster should be paid by Google and Facebook for the content they use.

ABC managing director David Anderson. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Taylor

ABC managing director David Anderson says the public broadcaster should be paid by Google and Facebook for the content those companies use on their platforms.

Mr Anderson’s comments come as the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission begins developing a revenue-sharing agreement between the companies and the media in­dustry.

The ABC had, until Mr Anderson’s comments, not become involved in the stoush between the digital giants and the country’s largest media companies News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian, and Nine Entertainment.

“I think it’s entirely appropriate that the ABC receives revenue for the value that it provides to the Australian people,” Mr Anderson told the National Press Club.

“Rather than revenue go to commercial operators because of what we’re doing, I think that it should come to the ABC to ­reinvest it into public interest journalism.”

News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller has previously suggested Google and Facebook should pay media companies $1bn for using their content on those platforms.

Nine chairman Peter Costello put that figure at $600m.

“I certainly accept that it’s difficult times for commercial operators, they’re doing it tough, they’re relying on a revenue stream, which is falling and falling dramatically,” Mr Anderson said on Wednesday.

The ABC, in its submission to the ACCC’s 2018 Digital Platforms Inquiry, said it had emerged unscathed from the rise of Google and Facebook, and had instead been able to reach more viewers and readers.

The ACCC is expected to release a draft mandatory code, to regulate revenue-sharing between the social media companies and the media, before the end of the month.

The competition regulator estimates the two tech giants had roughly $6bn of the local online advertising market.

It was initially tasked with developing a voluntary code but told the government an agreement was “unlikely”.

That inquiry also found Facebook and Google had “substantial market power”, with the latter earning almost 96 per cent of all search advertising revenue in Australia.

Facebook last month rejected demands to share advertising revenue with local media organisations and threatened to remove news from its platform if it was forced to.

Mr Anderson’s comments come two weeks after the ABC unveiled a five-year strategic plan, including up to 250 editorial, production and management job losses and the relocation of about 200 staff from its Sydney headquarters in Ultimo to around the country by 2025.

Mr Anderson also wants the ABC’s triennial funding cycle to be moved to five years to provide more stability.

“We believe a five-year funding cycle would take the ABC out of the politics of the three-year federal electoral cycle and further safeguard its independence.

“Longer term planning is required for the task of modernising the ABC, which includes shifting our focus towards on-demand programming, while maintaining our high editorial standards,” he said.

Mr Anderson said the broadcaster needed to be in “outer suburban areas” of Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

He used his National Press Club address on Wednesday to defend the value of the ABC.

“It is often mentioned that the ABC’s budget is over a billion dollars per year,” Mr Anderson said.

“This is a significant investment from the taxpayer for which we provide great value in return.”