Google to pay $100M a year for Canadian news content

Ottawa has agreed to set a $100-million yearly cap on payments that Google will be required to make to media companies when its controversial online news legislation takes effect Dec.19.

The announcement Wednesday has the Liberal federal government bending to the tech giant's demands after it threatened to remove news from its platform. A formula in the government's draft regulations to implement the bill would have seen Google contributing up to $172 million to news organizations.

It remains to be seen if Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will return to the negotiation table after it blocked all news content from its platforms so as not to be in breach of the upcoming laws.

The Online News Act compels tech giants to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for the news content that appears on their sites if that content contributes to revenues.

“This shows that this legislation works, it’s equitable,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said when answering reporters on whether the deal could make a difference regarding Facebook.

“Now it’s on Facebook to explain why they’re leaving their platform to disinformation and misinformation instead of sustaining our news system and participating in the viability of our news sector.”

St-Onge insisted Wednesday that the agreement was ultimately a win for the government and for the local news publishers it is seeking to support.

"This will benefit the news sector and allow Google to continue to play an important role in giving Canadians access to reliable news content."

Google's president of global affairs, Kent Walker, thanked the minister for "acknowledging our concerns and deeply engaging in a series of productive meetings about how they might be addressed."

He said in a statement that the "extensive discussions" addressed the company's "core issues" with the bill.

The deal will allow Google to comply with the legislation by paying into a single collective bargaining group that will serve as a media fund.

Meta's way of complying was to simply block all news content from Instagram and Facebook in Canada.

With files from The Canadian Press