Canadian broadcasters want government to make Apple pay for news
Canada's online news legislation only covers Meta/Facebook and Google, say regional broadcasters, and they are calling for it to be expanded to Apple News+ and others.
Apple News, Facebook, and Google apps on an iPhone
The Online News Act is Canada's new law that requires Facebook and Google to share revenues with the news publishers whose work they use. That won't happen, though, as both Facebook and Google have shuttered their news services rather than pay anything they owe.
According to the National Post, however, a group representing television and radio broadcasters in Canada is asking for the Online News Act to be expanded. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) wants the law to cover all online news, but it is specifically naming Apple as an example.
"The CAB believes that such services should be scoped into the framework, rather than excluded up front," said a spokesperson.
Unlike Facebook and Google, however, Apple does pay for the news it presents in Apple News+. It's done worldwide and in part via Apple's News Partner Program.
While the Online News Act became law in 2023, details of it are still being worked on and the government has been soliciting suggestions such as CAB's.
"As we've said all along, we are open to good and constructive ideas to improve the proposed framework," said a spokesperson for Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge. "Our goal remains the same of creating fair deals directly between news organizations and tech giants that can and should contribute more."
The National Post says that the Canadian government has estimated that the law will generate CA$320 million ($233 million) annually, of which $175 million would go to broadcasters.
It's not clear whether that estimates includes revenues from Google and Facebook. However, separately, Canadian government officials have estimated that the two firms would be paying a total of $170 million -- if they hadn't pulled out.
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Comments
If I was Apple, I would block Apple News+ service in Canada. Stop paying for any news from Canada and in fact have zero Canadian news at all. Now the Government gets NOTHING!!! The people there are out of luck, thanks to their government. This is completely ridiculous.
They're asking for the law to be expanded to other services including Apple - closing any loopholes. I don't think they're specifically asking for Apple to pay more.
Your last sentence is nonsense - most of the revenue goes to the media outlets (not "the government") including Postmedia and is intended to make up for online providers like Google and Facebook, etc. from continuing to take all their advertising revenue.
Also, people are not "out of luck" - they can still get their news by going directly to the broadcaster/publisher sites.
"The majority of any revenues generated from the legislation are expected to go to broadcasters, including companies like Bell and Rogers, but also the CBC. A Senate committee heard that the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the bill will generate $320 million in funding, with about $240 million of that going to broadcasters. Government officials said in later estimates they expect in total that Google could contribute $172 million a year and Facebook $62 million, if they were to be subject to the legislation."
The difference between Apple and Google/Meta is that Apple does actually pay for the content in Apple News+
So this change to the legislation will likely have no effect on Apple. It'll simply ensure that all online sources of news are covered by the same legislation.
Apple has long been a company which pays the entry fee for whatever they get into. Unlike Google who have a long history of preferring to go the route of litigation over paying any sort of licensing fees (cloning Java for app development on Android, buying WebM instead of licensing H.264, cloning fonts, etc). And Facebook has long looked to Google for how to run their business, so it's not surprising they choose the same path.
And that's what this is really about: if your business is going to profit from something, be it news content, music, or technology, you ensure that the people producing those things get paid accordingly for them. I have no love for scammers who are simply out to rip others off, or for those who blindly support them. Pay the entry fee to whatever industry you're choosing to do business in or GTFO.
Facebook has in Canada, but Google has not, yet.
Google's stated issues with the legislation was not the requirement that they pay for news snippets, but that the law would require them to individually negotiate payments with “every eligible news business or any collective bargaining group employing 100 or more journalists in Canada” outside of Quebec in addition to at least 25 journalists in Quebec. It also asked the government to "count positions like camera operators, sound technicians, and audio and video editors as journalists."
The agreement now reached with the Canadians simplifies and streamlines the process by having negotiations through a single entity rather than 100s. They've now done that and agreed on roughly $100 Million CAD, so it's a done deal.
I also understand Apple is not currently paying for the news snippets appearing in the free version of Apple News, nor did the law originally address Apple's use of Canadian publishers' stories, but I would expect them to come to the same general agreement as Google has reached. It's very workable and considered by the government to be fair to Canadians.