00:00After printing for more than 125 years, Broken Hill's independent newspaper Barrier Truth
00:08closed down this year.
00:10Sadly it's a common sight in regional Australia as vital advertising money is lost to social
00:15media platforms.
00:16The rapid growth of digital platforms in recent years has disrupted Australia's media landscape
00:23and it is threatening the viability of public interest journalism.
00:27Research and social media companies already pay some news outlets through the Media Bargaining
00:31Code, but a refusal to pay from Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has prompted the
00:36government to make major changes to the code.
00:39A financial incentive for agreement making between digital platforms and news media businesses.
00:46The charge will be applied to companies with Australian revenue of over $250 million a
00:51year, such as those that own Facebook, TikTok and Google.
00:55The charge is expected to be around $200 million a year, which they'll have to pay whether
01:00they run Australian news or not, but if they strike deals with local media outlets to pay
01:05for news content, the amount they outlay will be offset from their original charge.
01:10The past is the past.
01:11We've got new arrangements, new incentives in place.
01:15Let's come back to the table and strike some deals, make some agreements.
01:18The government wants this to be a carrot rather than a stick approach.
01:22In the end, these companies will be better off cutting deals with Australian news outlets
01:26rather than paying more to the government directly.
01:29TikTok says it'll engage with the consultation process, while Meta says it's concerned the
01:34proposal is charging one industry to subsidise another.
01:38Any money the government is left with from the tax will be distributed to media outlets.
01:43It's not revealed how it will protect regional media, but has flagged support is coming.
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