ABC dances with digital wolves

ABC managing director David Anderson has made a cheeky dash for cash late in the game, arguing Google and Facebook should now pay for the public broadcaster’s content that they exploit on their platforms. We have some sympathy for this view, but only in as much as the monopolist privateers of the digital realm should be halted in their plunder of original material, such as news, that is a social good and is very expensive to produce. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is developing a revenue-sharing agreement between the tech titans and the media industry, including News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian. A draft mandatory code, a world-first scheme for fair payment, is expected before the end of the month.

Let’s be clear why the ACCC has gone down this path. It is to end abuse of market power that has obliterated the funding model of commercial news media. This troubling development has dire implications for the free flow of information and our liberal democracy. The competition watchdog estimates the digital superpowers have 71 per cent of a $9bn local online advertising market. Our parent has called for the tech giants to pay media companies $1bn a year; Nine Entertainment chairman Peter Costello has put the figure at $600m. The issue has been bitterly fought, especially as the content pirates have dodged and weaved over several years, here and overseas. The Morrison government lost patience with their bad faith in negotiating a voluntary code and called for the ACCC to impose a compulsory one.

The monopolists will be directed to share data, properly display news content and pay a reasonable price for it. There will be penalties for breaches. Given the ABC has not lost a cent in revenue to these trillion-dollar thieves, it’s a bit rich to be insinuating itself into the revenue-sharing deal at this stage. Similarly, 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; instead the ABC had been able to reach more viewers and readers. Not only that, the public broadcaster has spent taxpayer funds on improving rankings of its news content in search engines — at the expense of publishers trying to make a dollar. Not prudent or kind, but that’s an executive decision about how the ABC’s precious $1bn a year is spent.

No doubt a slight tightening of belts at Aunty has brought on a desperate hunt for funds and switch in rhetoric. Two weeks ago the ABC revealed a five-year strategic plan, including up to 250 editorial, production and executive job losses and relocation of staff from its Sydney headquarters to around the country by 2025. Austerity rules in Mediaville, particularly among profit-driven outfits such as our own. But the ABC is in clover compared with the private sector. Sure, there is a moral case for the social media predators to make a contribution for ABC news content, notwithstanding the company tax they contribute. Perhaps the digital wolves could offer the ABC a tidy rebate, to save money for taxpayers on its pointless search manipulation.

Mr Anderson claims any extra revenue would be reinvested in public interest journalism. How do we know it would? In any case, the social good the ABC provides across many platforms is already paid for and guaranteed, year in, year out. That’s not the case for the commercial sector, with COVID-19 accelerating the shutdown of titles and job losses. Far from consumers turning away from traditional news outlets, the public appetite for our stories and images has never been greater. Of course, the ABC can break from the herd and do its own content deal at the margin. But that would injure other publishers, would be against the spirit of the ACCC’s conclusive findings and would allow Google and Facebook to accrue even more market power. That’s not in anyone’s interest, least of all a public hungrier than ever for engaging, around-the-clock and reliable news and information, to make sense of a world that is being remade before our eyes.