SIYABULELA MAKUNGA

Globally, and here at home, the news media sector is increasingly under pressure. In SA, declining advertising income and the limited ability of audiences to pay for subscriptions have led to shrinking newsrooms, closed bureaus, and constrained reporting capacity.

Last week, I wrote explaining that the Competition Commission’s Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) had found that digital platforms exacerbate these pressures by capturing audiences and monetisation opportunities that traditionally sustained news outlets.

But, of paramount importance to me, and hopefully the industry, is what’s being done to change the status quo.

In advancing this discussion, I’m reminded of the words of Martin Luther King Jnr, who said: “One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of [the] status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

R688m media support package agreed with Google and YouTube will fund national, community, and vernacular media through a combination of content licensing, innovation grants, and capacity-building initiatives.
— Siyabulela Makunga

Readers will recall that the MDPMI was initiated because the Competition Commission had reason to believe there are market features on digital platforms that distribute news media content that impede, distort, or restrict competition or undermine the purposes of the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (as amended).

I wrote last week providing more context to the MDPMI and its findings but also want to unpack the remedies the commission included in the final report. Central to these outcomes is a R688m media support package agreed upon with Google and YouTube, which will fund national, community, and vernacular media through a combination of content licensing, innovation grants, and capacity-building initiatives.

This includes support for newsroom innovation, contributions to the Digital News Transformation Fund, and funding for vernacular-language training through the Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA). The vernacular training is one of the various initiatives under the package.

Google will also introduce new user tools to prioritise local news sources, provide technical assistance to improve website performance, share enhanced audience data, and establish an African News Innovation Forum. Microsoft, in turn, will extend its MSN news contracts to include five additional national publishers.

In the social media space, Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) will create a media liaison office in SA and expand monetisation access through workshops, ad credits, and the removal of follower thresholds.

YouTube will offer automatic access for all SA media to its Partner Programme and support the SABC with direct ad sales and archive digitisation. TikTok will roll out its Publisher Support Suite in SA, including monetisation and analytics tools, while X Corp will make all monetisation programmes available locally and provide training workshops.

All platforms will implement digital literacy initiatives to strengthen media resilience and counter misinformation. Remedies in AdTech and AI will align SA with leading global standards. Google will extend transparency measures from the EU, improving visibility into advertising costs and publisher payments, and will remove self-preferencing practices within its ad systems.

AI companies will offer SA media the same content controls and opt-out mechanisms available in the EU, alongside biannual training to support the development of a fair and functioning market for licensed content.

The commission believes these remedies balance consumer choice while protecting fair competition for vernacular media and national media outlets alike and rebuilding the long-term sustainability of SA’s news media.

Importantly, most major platforms have agreed on the remedies and will implement them immediately after the launch.