Digital news publishers deserve a share of Big Tech revenue: Chandrasekhar

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has urged tech companies to share a slice of their revenue with the digital platforms of print news publishers.

The government hopes to address the imbalance in content creation by news media houses and its monetisation by advertising technology companies, the minister of state for electronics and information technology said at the inaugural session of the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA).

"Aggregators should give a 'fair share of revenues' to digital platforms of print news publishers," he said while dwelling on the Digital India Act. “We hope to address this issue of disproportionate control and imbalance of dynamics between content creation and its monetisation and the power that ad-tech companies and platforms hold today."

"It is not really the right thing for a country like ours where we have potentially hundreds of thousands of small content creators and many value, truth-driven news organisations,” Chandrasekhar said.

He pointed out the strained financial health of not just the digital news industry but the parent print news industry as well after the Covid pandemic. “For the growth of the news industry, it is important that digital news platforms of all these publishers, who are the creators of original content, get a fair share of revenues from the Big Tech platforms which act as aggregators of content created by others,” he said.

To solve this issue, the government could follow a path similar to that of Australia, suggested the minister.

In 2019, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) submitted a report to the Australian government focusing on the “impact of digital platforms on the choice and quality of news and journalism”.

The report, raises concerns creating “imbalance in the regulatory treatment of content delivered via traditional Broadcasting”, compared to digital platforms such as Meta Inc (formerly Facebook) and Google, and deemed “distortionary."

The government wanted India to be a producer of technology and not just a provider of talent. "India is focusing on a digital eco-system that transforms lives and not just an area of creating opportunity," he said.

"There is a clear vision our prime minister has on digital as a space and digital economy in particular. He wants India to be not just a provider of talent but a producer of technology, devices and products," Chandrasekhar said.