Google and Channel 4 in partnership talks
- Added:
- Oct 30, 2006
According to the Financial Times, Andy Duncan, Channel 4 CEO, visited Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California last month to discuss the deal.
Speaking to the FT, Duncan predicted that Google UK will make more revenues from advertising than Channel Four this year.
Duncan forecast that the US search engine group would "extract" about £900m in advertising from the UK market in 2006, Andy Duncan estimated, compared with Channel 4's annual advertising income of about £800m.
“People need to wake up and realise that this is not just a cyclical issue. There is deep structural change taking place," he told the Financial Times. "If we want to protect the fantastic legacy of UK broadcasting, we need to wake up to this sooner rather than later."
Google said the company did not provide forecasts, but as the UK accounts for more than 10% of its global sales it is obliged to disclose revenue figures its annual report.
For the year to 31 December 2005, these showed that the UK accounted for $878m, or 14% of Google's consolidated revenues of $6.14bn.
Last month, Google recently bought online video sharing site YouTube for $1.65bn in an all-share deal.