Meta signs $50 million annual AI licensing deal with News Corp for content access

Meta signs a multimillion dollar AI licensing deal with News Corp

Meta has signed an AI licensing deal with News Corp that will allow the Meta AI maker to use content from The Wall Street Journal and other brands in its chatbot responses and for training of its AI models. News Corp confirmed to Engadget that it had struck a deal with Meta, but didn't provide specifics on the terms of the arrangement. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta will pay News Corp. "up to $50 million a year" for a three-year deal that covers content from The Journal, as well as the media giant's other brands in the US and UK. News Corp previously struck a five-year deal with OpenAI that was valued at around $250 million. During a recent appearance at Morgan Stanley's annual Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) conference, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson hinted that the media company was in the "advanced stage with other negotiations." He described the company's overall approach to such arrangements as "a woo and a sue" strategy, depending on whether companies want to pay for content or scrape it without permission. "We have what you might call a woo and a sue strategy," he said. "We'll woo you. We'd like you to be our partner. But if you're stealing our stuff, we are going to sue you. So there'll be a discount for those who hand themselves in, and there'll be a penalty for those that resist."

News Corp says media is a valuable 'input' for AI as US$50m content deal inked with Meta

Chief executive Robert Thomson says he often speaks to both OpenAI's Sam Altman and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg News Corp's global chief executive has described news organisations as a valuable "input" for artificial intelligence, as the media empire signs a US$50m a year AI content licensing deal with Meta. In an upbeat presentation, the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's company, Robert Thomson, said the "reliable" breaking news and information in publications like the Australian, the Times of London and Dow Jones was "hard to beat" as an "input" for AI. The Meta deal, which was revealed by the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal earlier this week, will allow Facebook and Instagram's parent company to scrape News Corp's US and UK content to train its artificial-intelligence products. The outlets include the Journal, and the New York Post however the Australian mastheads which include the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun are not part of the deal. "We're essentially an input company," Thomson told a Morgan Stanley tech conference in San Francisco on Monday 2 March ahead of the landmark Meta deal. "The great threat in the age of AI is going to be to what you might call output companies. We're an input in the way that semiconductors are an input, in the way that datacentres are an input, in the way that energy is an input. "You look at breaking news, you look at unique real estate information." Thomson, who signed a $US250m, five-year deal with OpenAI in 2024 said the opportunities AI offered for news organisations were greater than the risks. He said he took a "woo or sue" approach - in which he welcomed deals with AI companies but he would sue them if they took the publisher's content illegally. Thomson said he had a good relationship with Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, and spoke to him often, as he did with Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta: "Mark and I converse on a pretty regular basis, across WhatsApp, obviously". In Australia, News Corp has taken a more adversarial approach to social media companies, blaming them for social cohesion issues across the globe. News Corp Australia's executive chair, Michael Miller, called for media to present a united front against the platforms and AI companies seeking content for free. News Corp has embraced the use of AI in its journalism as well. The Australian arm of the business introduced an in-house AI tool called "NewsGPT", which some journalists have expressed concern about. The news media has seen artificial intelligence and its integration into search engines as a threat to the sustainability of professional journalism as Google has integrated AI into search which has reduced the number of people who click through into news websites. The 2024 deal with ChatGPT developer OpenAI brought news content from the Journal, the Post, the Times and the Sunday Times to the artificial intelligence platform. Other publications, including the New York Times, have taken a different tack: suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the startup's key backer, over the use of its content to train generative AI and large-language model systems. Meta made a multibillion-dollar investment into AI infrastructure last year, announcing a deal worth up to $US6bn with Corning, a manufacturer of complex materials for telecoms and electronics, to supply fibre optic cables for the tech company's datacentres.

Meta Reportedly Signs $50 Million News Corp Deal As Big Tech's AI Content Arms Race Heats Up - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), News (NASDAQ:NWS)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) signed an artificial-intelligence content licensing deal with News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS) that will pay the media company up to $50 million a year, underscoring how aggressively Big Tech is now paying for journalism to help power chatbots and other AI tools. Three-Year Deal Opens US, UK Archives The agreement will run at least three years and gives Meta access to News Corp content from the United States and the United Kingdom, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal allows Meta to pull fresh reporting for users of its AI products and to train systems on additional material, including archives. Meta, OpenAI Race To Lock Content News Corp already cut a separate AI deal in 2024 with OpenAI that the Journal said could be worth more than $250 million over five years. OpenAI has also inked news partnerships with publishers including The Associated Press, Le Monde and Prisa Media, among others. Price Action: Meta shares rose 0.23% during Tuesday's regular session but fell 0.14% in after-hours trading to $654.15, according to Benzinga Pro. News Corp's Class A shares fell 0.67% during Tuesday's regular session and climbed 1.64% in after-hours trading, while Class B shares declined 0.72% during the session and went up 1.65% in extended trading. META earns a strong Quality rating in Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings, though its price trend remains negative across the short, medium and long-term periods. Photo Courtesy: 24K-Production on Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Meta signs massive AI deal with News Corp

Meta has inked a deal to pay News Corp up to US$50 million a year to use its content for the tech giant's AI products. The deal between the companies, valued at AU$71 million, will run for at least three years and allow the Facebook owner to use the media giant's US and UK news content, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Meta will be able to retrieve information and content, including story archives, from News Corp, the owner of Sky News Australia, to train its AI products. Earlier this week, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said the company was in advanced negotiations with AI giants for content deals. "You won't have too long to wait," Mr Thomson told a Morgan Stanley investor conference. "And what we are also finding is that more of these vertical specialists are coming to us because the data and the information and the news that they input has to be reliable. "It's hard to beat the Times of London or The Australian or Dow Jones, obviously, as an input. "And it might be agricultural information. We own The Weekly Times in Australia, the best known agricultural masthead. And if you're interested in creating an agricultural vertical of some kind, you need reliable information." The deal with Meta comes as major news organisations look to strike deals with AI giants that use their content. News Corp signed a deal in 2024 with ChatGPT-owner OpenAI worth more than US$250 million over five years. The company also signed a deal with AI journalism start-up Symbolic.ai in early 2025. Meta approached various US media companies about AI licensing deals last year. The tech giant said it has signed deals with Fox News, CNN, USA Today and People Inc. among other companies. While some media companies pursue deals with AI giants, others are suing them over intellectual property rights. The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. However, it has struck a deal with Amazon, reportedly worth between US$20 million and US$25 million. News Corp's Australian boss Michael Miller warned that 2026 would be a "make or break" year as it confronts the major shifts AI will bring to news media. "This moment has been coming for a while. It's the impact of AI, which is being seen at every company, but particularly at media companies that continue to get their content trawled and scraped," Mr Miller told The Australian. "It's the rapid rise of video on social, and how broadcasters are responding to that. "It's the regulation of big tech, and it's the inevitable M&A. There are fewer and fewer local players in the media, but more and more global players in this market."

Meta signs AI content deal with News Corp worth up to $50M annually By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has entered into a multiyear artificial intelligence content licensing agreement with News Corp that will compensate the media company up to $50 million per year, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The agreement will span at least three years and grants Meta access to News Corp's content from the United States and the United Kingdom. The deal enables Meta to retrieve new information for users of its artificial intelligence products and to train on additional content, including story archives. The financial terms of the Meta agreement demonstrate the growing value technology companies are assigning to news content that has been used to train their AI models. These companies also rely on such content to deliver users real-time information about current events through chatbots and other tools. News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal among other media properties. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.