Google boss warns against television repeating mistakes of press

Matt Brittin cites newspapers' failure to grasp impact internet companies would have on business and says producers should take advantage of web's growth

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.