Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht

General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Dualta Ó Broin:

This is incredibly important and we agree that it is important. We are exploring ways in which we can work with news organisations around the world. We have done it in the UK and it is rolling out in Germany now. The US was the first place in which we rolled out a news tab whereby we have made deals with publishers for specific content that appears in that news tab. It is not the case that we are averse to such a system, that we are walking away from it and throwing our hat in the air. However, a system must be put in place that recognises where the value is added and how the online ecosystem works. That is why I was trying to make the point at the beginning about how the content appears on the platform. We must figure out how to monetise the traffic that is diverted off our platforms onto the news media sites. That is where the crux of this will be and the news media organisations that figure out how to harness the power of that traffic will come out with a sustainable business model.

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