RTS: Skins producer All3Media calls Google a 'cowboy'

Speaking at the RTS International Conference today, Morrison said that Google should not benefit from content appearing as sponsored links on its search site.

He asked Google's UK chief Matt Brittin: "Why should our content be available to you to make money out of it?"

Morrison, who co-founded All3Media following the acquisition of Chrysalis Group's TV division in September 2003, explained that a current search for the All3Media programme 'Peep Show', would display a sponsored link to a SeeSaw ad for 'Peep Show', bought through Google.

He noted that with this current set-up, All3Media, the content creator, receives nothing.

"If value is not collected by the content creator and broadcaster or aggregator at every stage of viewing, there will not be enough income to fund content," he said. "It is wrong for money to leak out of the system which doesn’t help reinvest it into content."

Clearly taken aback by the attack, the Google UK leader's response was equally strong: "We do not have a relationship with content providers in that context. I do not like being called a cowboy."

Brittin added that Google's YouTube was currently working with content providers to monetise content to upload it to the site.

Rather than the new platforms cannibalising TV, Brittin insisted Google's developments were providing a "big opportunity" for UK content providers to experiment and reach out to wider audiences.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk