CRTC launches consultation to formalize Google news linking agreement

By Ahmad Hathout The CRTC wants to know whether it should exempt Google from having to negotiate with news publishers to host content for five years and thereby lock-in an agreement the platform struck with a news collective earlier this month. Google held an open call, as it’s required under the new Online News Act, between February 28 and April 30 to field prospective eligible news businesses that want a piece of the $100 million it agreed to distribute every year to host news content. The process resulted in Google reaching an agreement with the Canadian Journalism Collective  (CJC) on…