Part of a broader agreement with Google, Meta, YouTube, X and TikTok to promote fairer media distribution and monetisation in SA. From Moneyweb.
Google and YouTube will pay R688 million in support to local media producers following publication of a report by the Competition Commission into complaints that global social media companies profit from local news content without fair compensation.
This has resulted in revenue losses for SA publishers at a time when newsrooms are shrinking and ad revenue declining.
“Google’s monopoly position and the unequal bargaining position of the media means there has not been an equitable share of value between Google and news publishers in South Africa both historically and currently,” says a report by the CompCom.
“This inequity has materially contributed to the erosion of the media in SA and will continue to do so unless remedied.”
The result has been a R200-R300 million a year value extraction or destruction by Google.
Google and YouTube (both owned by Alphabet) agreed to the R688 million payout through content licensing, innovation grants, and capacity-building initiatives.
The agreement with the Competition Commission after two months of negotiations is framed as a voluntary settlement rather than a penalty.
The funding will go to newsroom innovation, contributions to the Digital News Transformation Fund, and funding for vernacular-language training through the Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA), says a statement from the commission.
Audience decline, bias and misinformation
Google scrapes news content from media sites without compensation, while referral traffic to publishers is declining due to AI summaries and zero-click behaviour.
The commission’s report found that Google’s algorithm favours foreign media over community and vernacular outlets, with Microsoft showing a similar bias on its MSN platform.
Daily newspapers have seen print circulation decline by 66% in the five years from 2018 to 2023, with a decline of 55% including weekend papers over the same period.
For broadcasters, the total TV audience has declined by 20% from 2019 whereas for news broadcasts specifically there has been a decline in viewership of around 40%.
Print advertising revenue across the three large publishers has declined by 38% in the five years from 2018. Broadcasters have seen a decline in total advertising revenue of 47% since its peak in 2016. The SABC is dependent on advertising revenue as only 4% of its total revenue comes from government and a further 18% from the television licence.
Social media is dominated by Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), YouTube, X and TikTok, all publishing user-posted content to drive engagement and advertising. South Africans get most of their news from these sites.
Meta and X have deprioritised news links, reducing referral traffic, while misinformation continues to grow as platforms promote engagement over credible news, according to the commission.
Advertising revenues
The report found that Google dominates AdTech (advertising technology) by monopolising the ad servers used by publishers to manage and sell digital inventory, bundling them with its own ad exchange that favours Google’s systems through lower fees and access to third-party bid data.
Similar findings have been made in the US and EU, while Google has since expanded support for South African vernacular media, though alternative tools remain limited.
Google has agreed to offer SA advertising companies the same transparency enjoyed in the EU, while improving visibility into advertising costs and publisher payments. It will also remove self-preferencing practices within its ad systems.
Licensing
AI companies will offer South African media the same content controls and opt-out mechanisms available in the EU, alongside biannual training to support the development of a fair and functioning market for licensed content.
Media houses are permitted to opt out of AI-powered search (where AI provides story summaries) but these options are costly for smaller media companies. Some force media houses to opt out of both training and AI summaries, while other social media companies have a more granular approach.
Current content licensing deals with media houses favour the few global publishers already winning at the subscription game, to the detriment of smaller publishers who are not compensated for their copyright material.
Google will also introduce new user tools to prioritise local news sources, provide technical assistance to improve website performance, share enhanced audience data, and establish an African News Innovation Forum.
Microsoft, in turn, will extend its MSN news contracts to include five additional national publishers.
Google, Meta, OpenAI and X.ai will provide opt-out training to local media that want to develop and market their content.
The inquiry recommends that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) issue a block exemption to enable collective bargaining by South African media over platform monetisation terms, AI content licensing, AdTech pricing, and joint ad sales for community media.
The Department of Communication and Digital Technology has been urged to develop content-moderation regulations under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, introducing self-regulation frameworks for social media platforms and establishing an independent social media ombud to oversee public complaints and moderation practices.
Additional make-nice undertakings
YouTube will offer automatic access for all South African media to its Partner Programme and support the SABC with direct ad sales and archive digitisation.
TikTok will roll out its Publisher Support Suite in South Africa, including monetisation and analytics tools, while X Corp will make all monetisation programmes available locally and provide training workshops.
All platforms will implement digital literacy initiatives to strengthen media resilience and counter misinformation.
TikTok has agreed to support programmes to help publishers maximise reach and lead generation, as well as ‘smart-split’ editing tools to adapt off-platform content. It will also allow article links allowing the media to insert links within videos to monetise the content.
Meta will establish a media liaison office to provide training and support to the local media and will provide ad credits for media houses.
‘Landmark step’
CompCom Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) chair James Hodge says the final report is a landmark step toward rebalancing digital markets, protecting fair competition, and rebuilding the long-term sustainability of SA’s news media.
It reaffirms “that a healthy, independent, and diverse press is essential to democracy, and that collective action, equitable regulation, and platform accountability are vital to safeguarding that principle for the digital future”.
