Google boss warns against television repeating mistakes of press

Google’s European boss has warned that the TV industry risks repeating the mistakes of newspapers by trying to “protect the past from the future”.

Matt Brittin told the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival that the “Edinburgh bubble” and debates over the BBC reminded him of how newspapers failed to grasp how companies like Google would affect their businesses. A former Olympic rower, Brittin had first-hand experience of the internet’s impact on newspapers as an executive at Trinity Mirror before joining Google in 2007.

“What I loved about newspapers was the daily deadline and the sense of purpose,” he said. “I think there was a real fear about cannibalising one’s own audience, there was a sense of wanting to protect the past from the future.”

“The internet came along and the advertising worked and it cost much less. They should have been looking up, which is why I slightly worry about the bubble of Edinburgh.”

Brittin said TV producers should be thinking about how to take advantage of the growth in the number of people with internet connections worldwide.

“As an outsider, [I see] the industry is talking about the BBC, we should be talking about the 5 billion people [who will be online in 2020], we should be talking about creating great content that goes beyond those barriers of time and space and reach audiences, while we still have an amazing productive and profitable device in the corner of the room that is making us money.”

Brittin said global audiences were “disproportionately” interested in content from the UK, pointing out that the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent attract 1.1bn views a month, with 75% coming from outside the UK.

He also said the world was interested in “British moments” such as the Queen and Daniel Craig as James Bond parachuting into the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

“The world wants to watch moments like that, disproportionately.”