Google has reached a settlement with South African competition authorities, agreeing to provide R688 million to the country’s media organisations as compensation for revenue losses caused by the dominance of digital platforms. This agreement forms part of a broader effort to restore equilibrium between international technology companies and domestic news providers, which have seen their earnings diminish over the past decade amid changing consumer habits and the ascent of online giants.
The Competition Commission, following its media and digital platforms market inquiry launched in October 2023, has secured this “media support package” from Google and YouTube. The funds will be distributed to national, community, and vernacular outlets through content licensing arrangements, innovation grants, and programmes designed to enhance operational capabilities. According to the commission’s earlier recommendations, such payments should range between R300 million and R500 million each year for three to five years, addressing the sharp decline in advertising income that traditional publishers have experienced.
The inquiry examined how platforms including Google, Meta, X, TikTok, Microsoft, and artificial intelligence firms like OpenAI control the primary channels through which South Africans obtain information, such as search engines, social networks, and AI-driven tools. In the search domain, Google holds a commanding position, with news-related queries accounting for 5 to 10 per cent of all searches and contributing significantly to user retention, which is then monetised via advertisements. However, the investigation revealed that Google does not remunerate South African publishers for the news snippets it features or condenses in results.
James Hodge, the commission’s chief economist and inquiry chair, highlighted that referral traffic to local media sites has plummeted as users increasingly rely on AI-produced overviews or stay within Google’s ecosystem. The platform’s algorithms also prioritise larger international publications over smaller South African or indigenous-language ones, exacerbating disparities in exposure and ad revenue. A comparable preference for overseas content appears in Microsoft’s MSN portal, which engages only a limited number of domestic publishers.
Paula Fray, an experienced South African media professional, described the package as an important advance but emphasised that it forms only one element of the necessary reforms. She argued that the long-term viability of the nation’s press demands fundamental structural shifts beyond mere financial injections. Fray further pointed out persistent concerns about misinformation, intensified by AI, and the complexities of content moderation. During the inquiry, stakeholders engaged extensively on these topics, with many publishers cautioning against imposing liability on platforms, as this could inadvertently curb freedom of expression. There was notable backing for an independent ombudsperson model to oversee such matters, according to Competition Commission Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry Final Report.
This settlement marks a pivotal moment in global efforts to ensure fair compensation for news content aggregated by tech firms, echoing similar negotiations in Australia and Canada where legislation compelled payments from Google and Meta. In Australia, for instance, the News Media Bargaining Code has generated over A$200 million annually for publishers since 2021, demonstrating the potential impact of regulatory intervention on media sustainability.