The details of a deal between Meta and Network 10 have been revealed, in light of the tech giant confirming its decision not to renew its deals to pay Australian publishers for news content when the existing Media Code deals expire this year.
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The Australian Financial Review has acquired two summaries of agreements signed in mid-2021 by both 10 and Facebook. The deals were struck independently from the government as Facebook – before rebranding to Meta – worked to avoid having to make deals with publishers under the News Media Bargaining Code.
The first contract began in June 2021, and reads “Ten will be paid USD$2,750,000 plus GST per annum for the 3 years that content is posted.”
“Once Facebook has recouped the fee expenditure in net revenue, Ten will be entitled to a 55 per cent share of any additional net advertising revenue.”
The second contract was worth $US400,000 per year, and covered the “agreement to monetise articles created by The Project on the Facebook News Surface platform via a content feed from 10Play”.
This agreement saw 10 agree to post 6000 clips on Facebook every year. The content was to come from shows including 10 News First, Studio 10, and The Project, and detailed restrictions for the clips including video length, resolution, and file size.
If videos could not be posted in the allotted time frames, clips “of equivalent or greater value, quantity and quality” had to be posted.
The deals also gave Facebook the ability to terminate the contracts in a number of scenarios, including if the tech giant went ahead with a news ban – which it did temporarily in February 2021 – or if any of its platforms ended up designated under the Media Code laws.
Commenting on Meta’s decision not to renew Media Code deals, a 10 spokesperson said “We are disappointed with the decision by Meta announcing it will no longer pay for use of Australian news content on Facebook.
“It is essential that Australian news media services are fairly remunerated for their trusted, local and impartial news content. Without fair compensation, it becomes increasingly
difficult for news organisations.
“We urge the Government to designate Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code but further implore them to expand the Code to cover video specific platforms, that also reap significant value from sharing news content across their services.”