Glen Kyne: Former Warner Bros Discovery head says local news would struggle without Google

A former media boss says Google's threat to blow up New Zealand news agreements should be taken seriously.

The search engine says it will remove any ability to find New Zealand news on its platform — if the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill passes later this year.

The legislation would force global tech giants to negotiate with media companies and pay for news content.

Former head of Warner Bros Discovery Glen Kyne told Mike Hosking local news would struggle without Google.

“The risk is that are media companies able to survive and keep revenue flowing? I suspect the industry would take an enormous hit and that means also job losses would go with it.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we seem to be also following a fairly well
worn path when it comes to dealing with big tech
and then stomping up for local news content on their platform.
So the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill is designed to
generate income for local media from big tech who take
the product for nothing and stick it on their platforms. Now,
Google are now threatening to remove all links to New
Zealand content if the legislation passes Now the former head

(00:21):
of Warner Brothers Discovery New Zealand, Glenn Coin's with us
on all of this. Glenn, very good morning to you, Morman, Mike,
thank you. Are we going to be able to do
anything that Canada hasn't really or Australia hasn't really.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's certainly hard to see New Zealand carving its own
way in all of this, and I think we only
have to look to Australia and Canada's our lessons learned exactly.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Do you take Google and their threats seriously or not?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes? I do take it seriously, and I think it
should They execute against that strategy to be pretty devastating
for the industry here. I think it's very important that
both government and the industry here unite in a line
between us at a common approach to how they need
to approach this negotiation with Google it indeed, you know
all other international news platforms have we not.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Done that to a degree? I mean, this is what
this legislation is. We're all aligned, we all kind of
agree that they need to pay something they don't want to.
And that's where we're at, basically, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, it as we're at. And I think the industry
has done a good job to this point and needs
to continue to stay together to support the government in
this approach because you know, we're in this sort of
state of britmanship right now and the outcome is incredibly important,
not just for the media companies but indeed for all
journalism in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
What would happen if we pass the law and they
go through with their threat and pull us from their service,
what literally would happen?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, Well, the government has suggested that if that would happen,
then others would step in and take on you know,
the search for example of Google, Microsoft will step up
and take on that sort of thing. The challenge being
Mike is there is an entire ecosystem now built around
Google infrastructure. You know, they completely vertically integrated. That's why
they're under investigation in the US right now. They are

(02:01):
so powerful in terms of the way our indistinve transacts revenue,
AD revenue and add dollars. That's not going to be
easily replaced. So that is going to take an extreme
long time to come back into the industry. And in
the meantime, you know the risks that are media companies
able to survive and keep revenue flowing. I suspect the

(02:22):
industry would take an enormous hit, and that means also
job losses would go with it.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Where do you reckon? This ultimately ends up hand on heart?
What do you think is going to happen.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I do think there'll be a reasonably negotiated sentiment. I
think Google will want some certainty in terms of what
their commitment to New Zealand News is going to look like.
Arguably they have that at the moment with the deals
that they've already done, but they don't want those deals
that risk through this legislation being passed and having to
pay more. So I think ultimately they're looking for certainty,

(02:52):
and I think that the industry will get there with
them good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Glen plashed it very much. Glen conn who's the formerhead
of Warner Brothers Discovery in this Country.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
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