Australia's News Corp inks Facebook deal

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp reached a content-supply deal with Facebook Inc in Australia, making it the first major media outlet to strike a Facebook deal under Australia's new laws where government-appointed arbitrator sets fees if companies fail to do so.

Last month, Facebook shut out all media content in Australia for a week, angering world leaders as the blackout included emergency services and government health pages.

Eventually, Australia agreed to soften some parts of the new regulations, ending the shutdown.

News Corp was among Australian media companies that called for the government to make Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google pay for the media links that bring viewers to their platforms and generate advertisements.

Like Facebook, Google objected against the terms months and threatened to withdraw core services from the country, before signing deals with most media outlets, including News Corp.

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson called the deal with Facebook a landmark in transforming journalism trade terms while thanking the Australian PM, treasurer, and chief antitrust regulator by name.

According to Andrew Hunter, Facebook’s head of news partnerships in Australia, the deal meant Facebook’s 17 million users in the country “will gain access to premium news articles and breaking news video from News Corp’s network of national, metropolitan, rural and suburban newsrooms”.

News Corp operates a subscription cable TV network called Sky News, which struck a separate Facebook deal.

Seven West Media Ltd and Nine Entertainment Co Holdings have also signed letters of intent for Facebook deals.