Google signs a 5-year contract to pay for AFP news | Investment news

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OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google will begin paying Agence France-Presse for its news content as part of the broad five-year partnership announced Wednesday that marks one of the largest licensing deals entered into by a tech giant under to a new French law.

News organizations, which have lost advertising revenue to online aggregators like Google and Facebook, have been complaining for years about tech companies using stories in search results or other free-of-charge features.

New laws in France and Australia, fueled by media pressure and public pressure, have given publishers greater leverage, leading to a series of worldwide licensing deals worth billions of dollars in total.

The AFP deal follows France enacting a copyright law that creates “neighboring rights,” requiring big tech companies to open talks with news editors who want a license fee.

Google declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, but confirmed it will last for five years. The companies said in a joint press release that they will also collaborate on projects, such as fact-checking.

“This agreement is a recognition of the value of information,” Fabrice Fries, managing director of Agence France-Presse, said in a statement.

Google earlier this year agreed to pay $ 76 million over three years to a group of 121 French news publishers, excluding AFP, Reuters previously reported. But the deal was suspended, pending the outcome of an antitrust proceeding in which the French competition regulator accused Google of failing to negotiate in good faith.

Sébastien Missoffe, chief executive of Google France, said the deal with AFP showed the “willingness of the tech company to find common ground with publishers.”

The deal doesn’t bring AFP into News Showcase, a feature launched by Google last year that promotes content from more than 1,000 publishers who have agreed to license paid content.

Reuters signed a News Showcase Agreement https://www.reuters.com/article/rpb-googlenewsshowcase/reuters-becomes-first-global-news-provider-to-offer-content-on-google-news-showcase- idINKBN29Q2SV with Google in January and the owner of the Wall Street Journal News Corp struck a similar deal a month later.

Facebook last month signed a related rights deal with a French alliance that includes dozens of publishers like Le Figaro.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave; editing by Stephen Coates)

Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.

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