MURDOCH’S NEWS CORP. CUTS PARTNERSHIP DEAL WITH GOOGLE

News Corp. struck a global news deal with Alphabet Inc’s Google, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company said, in one of the most extensive deals of its kind with big tech, Helen Coster reported for Reuters.

The companies will develop a subscription platform, share advertising revenue through Google’s ad technology services, build out audio journalism and develop video journalism by YouTube. The deal comes after years of public feuding between Murdoch and Google, most recently in Australia, where Google has threatened to shut down its search engine to avoid “unworkable” content laws.

It is a capstone for the 89-year-old media mogul, his son Lachlan and News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson to seek compensation for premium content from platforms. Murdoch previously secured payments from Apple Inc and Facebook Inc for their Apple News and Facebook News products.

The company declined to comment on financial details of the deal, which it said involved “significant payments” by Google. In Australia, the country’s two largest free-to-air television broadcasters have struck deals with Google collectively worth A$60 million ($47 million) a year, according to media reports.

The Australian deals come days before the government plans to pass laws that would allow it to appoint an arbitrator to set Google’s content fees if it cannot strike a deal privately, a factor that government and media figures held up as a turning point for negotiations which stalled a year earlier.

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