Seven West Media today announced it has signed a Letter of Intent to provide news content to Facebook.
The LOI is subject to signing a long-form agreement between the two companies, expected to be executed over the following 60 days. Seven West Media will provide more details following the execution of the agreement.
Seven West Media Chairman Kerry Stokes AC (pictured) said: “The establishment of this new partnership with Facebook is a significant move for our business and reflects the value of our original news content across our successful metropolitan and regional broadcast, digital and print properties.
“On 15 February we announced a LOI for a partnership with Google, to provide news content to the Google Showcase product.
“Together, the two announcements are a strong recognition of the quality and credibility of our leading news brands and entertainment, and will enable us to continue to build our digital platform,” he said.
“These partnerships would not have been possible without the leadership and vision of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, and we thank them.”
Yesterday it was announced that Facebook and the government had reached an agreement to overturn the ban on Australian news content. Facebook said in a statement that it was “satisfied” with the government’s changes.
“[We] appreciate the constructive discussions we’ve had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week,” it said.
“After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them.
“As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days.”