Nine Entertainment has reportedly come to an agreement with Google over payment for use by the digital giant of news content.
The Sydney Morning Herald, a Nine title, quoted industry sources that a letter of intent had been signed with Google overnight.
"A final commercial agreement could be struck in the next fortnight and is expected to be substantially larger than the deal struck by rival network Seven with Google earlier this week," the report says.
The five-year deal is for use of news articles on a variety of different products including News Showcase, the report says.
A Nine spokesperson did not confirm the deal: “We continue to have constructive discussions with the digital platforms and when we have anything to announce we will do so to the ASX as is appropriate.”
Google offered no comment.
The newspaper says the deal is worth more than $30 million a year.
However, industry insiders say this number would be surprisingly low for such a major premium publisher.
Earlier this week Seven West Media announced a long-term partnership to provide news content to Google Showcase which launched in Australia in early this month.
That deal was reported to be worth $30 million.
The Seven West deal put eight publishers in Australia on Google Showcase, including Crikey, The Conversation, The New Daily and regional newspapers from Australian Community Media.
News Corp has been backing the media code, which is expected to be passed in law by the federal parliament.
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