Google TV exec asks for more understanding from broadcasters

Broadcasters wouldn't withhold content from Google TV (Nasdaq: GOOG) if they better understood the concept behind the service, Rishi Chandra, Google TV's lead product manager said during a keynote address at Streaming Media West.

Broadcasters, who have learned the value of retransmission, have been quick to block their content from Google TV's software platform that, at its base, lets users access websites and online videos through their TVs. Chandra emphasized that Google TV is not part of the old way of retransmitting TV, but is in the vanguard of television's "third phase" of long tail content available from the Internet.

"It's going from 300 channels to millions of channels. What people are doing is watching more different kinds of television," he said.

Broadcasters, therefore, need to understand that their content is already available via a number of online and over-the-air methods, so it's already there for the taking. If the broadcasters want to make money Google would be willing, through its YouTube subsidiary, to arrange some form of advertising revenue-share model.

"This is the difference between Google TV and YouTube. YouTube is a service. Google TV itself is literally just a platform," he said.

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