Nine Entertainment, one of Australia’s largest media conglomerates, has entered into a significant licensing agreement with Microsoft that will allow the technology company’s Copilot artificial intelligence platform to draw on articles from several of the network’s flagship news outlets. The deal, first reported Saturday by the Australian Financial Review, covers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Australian Financial Review itself.
Under the terms, Microsoft’s AI digital assistant — integrated into Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams — will display snippets, headlines, and summaries that direct readers back to the original mastheads for full stories. Readers will need a subscription to access the complete articles. The financial terms of the agreement have not been publicly disclosed.
The Australian Financial Review has estimated the value falls somewhere under $25 million per year. Jane Livesey, president of Microsoft in Australia and New Zealand, described the partnership as a win for journalism’s future.
“AI is transforming the way Australians connect with information, and access to trustworthy sources has never mattered more,” Livesey told the AFR. “Forward-thinking partnerships like this show how technology and media companies can work together to ensure a thriving future for Australian journalism.”
A Media Giant’s Evolution and Internal Turmoil
Nine Entertainment traces its roots to Australian Consolidated Press, the media empire built by Sir Frank Packer. His Channel 9 became the nation’s first commercial television network.
After Sir Frank’s death in 1974, his son Kerry Packer took control. In 1994, the magazine and television arms were combined into Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, or PBL. The Packer family ended its involvement in 2008, and the company was renamed Nine Entertainment in 2010.
A major transformation came in late 2018 when Nine merged with Fairfax Media. That deal brought together television, radio, and digital operations with some of Australia’s most prominent newspaper mastheads.
The combined entity now owns the Nine Network, daily newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the Australian Financial Review, digital properties such as nine.com.au and 9Honey, and the video-streaming service Stan. Today, Nine Entertainment is a publicly listed Australian media conglomerate that operates television and radio stations, publishes major newspapers and digital outlets, and runs a subscription streaming platform. The company’s decision to license its news content to Microsoft’s Copilot AI comes at a time of significant internal change.
Nine is undergoing what it describes as a “major restructure,” with news that 20 additional jobs are set to be cut next year in the news division. That follows 50 job axings last year.
In late April, Fiona Dear, executive director of news and current affairs, warned all TV news staff would be affected, with every role under review.
Navigating the Rise of Artificial Intelligence
The deal illustrates how traditional media organisations are navigating the rise of artificial intelligence, choosing to negotiate commercial arrangements rather than block the technology. For readers, the agreement means that snippets from Nine’s mastheads will appear inside Microsoft’s productivity software, with full articles still behind a paywall.
The arrangement reflects a broader shift in how news is discovered and distributed in an era of automated assistants. By licensing its content to a major AI platform, Nine Entertainment is positioning itself to capture value from the growing use of generative AI while maintaining its subscription business model. The partnership also provides Microsoft’s Copilot users with access to curated, professionally produced news content, a factor that Ms. Livesey highlighted as essential in an age of information overload.
As the media landscape continues to evolve under the pressure of technological disruption and cost-cutting measures, the Nine-Microsoft deal stands as a concrete example of one company’s strategy to adapt: embrace the technology on commercial terms, even as the workforce feels the strain of restructuring.
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