Google is going to start paying U.K. publishers for news

February 10, 2021: On Wednesday, Google announced it had launched its News Showcase product in the U.K., meaning the tech giant will pay to news publishers in the country for the first time.

A deal has been signed by the Silicon Valley firm with 120 British publications, which includes The Financial Times and Reuters, who will be paid a licensing fee to produce news extracts that will be appeared in Google News Showcase.

According to the reports, publishers will be received some million dollars per year from Google. 

On Wednesday, Ronan Harris, managing director at Google U.K. and Ireland, said in a blog,

“Google News showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news will start to roll out with local, independent, and national publishers in the U.K.

“As part of our licensing agreements with publishers, we’re also launching the ability for readers to access select paywall content. This will allow readers to read more about publisher’s content than they would have access to while enabling publishers to make readers subscribe.”

 Google has convinced 450 news publications worldwide to make content for Google News Showcase.

This feature has also been launched in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Canada, France, Argentina, and Japan. Discussions are underway in several other countries, said Google.

Tech giants such as Facebook and Google have come under increasing pressure to pay media companies for their content.

Last October, Google said the publishers would be paid $1 billion for news for the next three years.

However, when the Australian Government proposed a law that forced Facebook and Google to pay the publishers of the news for the right to link their content in the news feed or search results.

Australia’s proposed law is dubbed the news media bargaining code, and it’s explicitly targeted at Facebook and Google. It would even force tech giants to negotiate payments with local publishers and broadcasters for content included in search results or news feeds. If the deal isn’t struck, an arbitrator appointed by the Government will decide the price.

Google calls it “unreasonable” and “unworkable” by lobbying hard against the code.

Managing director for Google Australia and New Zealand, Mel Silva, told a Senate committee that “Coupled with the unmanageable financial and operational risk if this version of the Code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia.”