Google TV isn’t off to a great start with all networks blocking their content, but it seems Eric Schmidt is not worried at all about this. The networks’ biggest concern is that Google TV will kill their advertising revenues by being replaced by online ads, which are much less lucrative for them. Eric Schmidt thinks that people are already switching to pirated alternatives of their shows, so if everyone would use Google TV or a similar option, it would actually bring back some of the money to the networks.
Here’s what he said:
I think part of the experiement that is being run now with Sony is that people are going to watch even more television. – referring to Sony Internet TV, which runs Google TV software.
…Because [consumers] are going to watch the broadcast television and [web content]…Let’s think about the creative possibilities. The way to get more revenue is to create more revenue sources.
Google TV is clearly a huge opportunity for the search engine giant, because Google could end up dominating not just advertising on the web, but also advertising on TV.