Free TV calls for tax breaks for news production to curtail Google, Facebook

Free TV Australia has called for news production tax breaks and other regulatory measures to clamp down on tech giants, Google and Facebook.

Free TV CEO Bridget Fair in Crown St, Surry Hills.(THE AUSTRALIAN/Simon Bullard)

Free TV Australia, which represents commercial free-to-air television broadcasters, has called for news production tax breaks and a raft of other regulatory measures to clamp down on tech giants, Google and Facebook.

In response to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s digital platforms inquiry preliminary report, Free TV said “a news production tax offset should be introduced to support the production of Australian news and journalistic content.”

Free TV also wants tax deductions for personal subscriptions and the regional and small publishers fund to be expanded, plus news from established Australian media companies to be “clearly identified in search results and newsfeeds.”

Chief executive Bridget Fair said the ACCC’s digital platform’s preliminary report found that “Google and Facebook have substantial market power and are unavoidable business partners for Australian companies of all kinds, including the media.”

“We are asking the ACCC to take the logical next step and develop a new regulatory system

that will have immediate impact and support the ongoing production of news and Australian

content,” Ms Fair said in a statement.

Free TV said “digital platforms should be required to be transparent in their data collection practices to

enable consumers to provide their informed consent.”

In December, the ACCC said Google and Facebook had “substantial market power” and outlined almost a dozen recommendations to hold them to account, including closer scrutiny of their activities by a government agency and strict new data collection rules.

The ACCC suggested a new regulator be established to ensure Australian media companies can “monetise their content fairly” but Free TV believes perhaps the competition regulator could secure “a system of undertakings” from dominant digital platforms.

Free TV said its proposed model would give the ACCC the power to arbitrate when media companies

and the tech companies can’t agree on a “fair payment for the use of content.”

Responses to the ACCC’s digital platforms preliminary report, which was released in December, were due by February 15, with a final report to be delivered to the federal government by June 3.