Debate continues about how to pay for news content

Platform bosses are scheduled to appear before a US Congressional hearing exploring potential regulation of the industry. Picture: AFP

Media monitoring firm Streem is aiming to leverage direct deals between media companies and business as a way of boosting service and media revenues.

The company, established by Elgar Welch, uses technology to provide real time media monitoring so the client knows within minutes if they are mentioned in the media.

Streem provides the link, pays any copyright and any licensing fee, but from the media company’s perspective it can gain a direct link to the reader.

Deals with big corporate customers can then be narrowed down to individual divisions and in that way extend their footprint.

The company was established by Welch and technology chief Antoine Sabourin in 2014.

It has attracted high profile backers including former ACCC boss Graeme Samuel and corporate director and former Australian rugby captain John Eales.

The direct licensing model comes at a time the ACCC will next week release its draft of conduct detailing how the big digital platforms will compensate news publishers for their material.

News Corp has advocated a model where publishers negotiate directly with the platforms, but free-to-air broadcasters have argued in favour of a collective agency like the Copyright Agency collecting money on behalf of the media companies.

Streem’s Welch argues the collection agency model should be disregarded and publishers should go direct to avoid a middle man.

The ACCC code is due to be finalised by the end of August.

This comes as the platform bosses are scheduled to appear before a US Congressional hearing exploring potential regulation of the industry.

The mandatory ACCC code will be a global first providing for the way content deals will be negotiated including potentially a so called baseball deal where the two sides will present their case and the ACCC will take one or the other.