Top executives from Nine Entertainment and News Corp Australia, appearing before a parliamentary committee, have admitted that the looming expiry of lucrative licensing deals with Meta would lead to job cuts across the media sector.

The bosses of Australia’s three largest media companies — Nine, News Corp and Seven West Media — made up the first panel on day one of hearings at the government’s joint select committee into social media and Australian society, which began Friday morning.

The deals with Meta, which are worth roughly $70 million a year, are a focal point of the inquiry. It follows Meta’s announcement in March that it would not willingly renew agreements made with 13 news publishers in 2021 under the threat of the News Media Bargaining Code.

News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller appeared alongside Nine chief Mike Sneesby and Seven managing director and CEO Jeff Howard. Sneesby said early in the session that the expiry of the Meta deals would “most certainly” put pressure on jobs in the industry.

Miller later said Meta’s decision would cost journalism jobs.

“We are trying to maintain the maximum number of frontline journalists to cover Australian stories and Australian news,” Miller told the committee.