Media Playground 2010: “Google could bid for Premier League TV rights”

Google could enter the TV market with a bid for Premier League football rights, LoveFilm’s group digital officer Lesley MacKenzie told delegates at last week’s Media Playground 2010 event.

MacKenzie said that the possibility should not be dismissed out of hand, particularly as the online giant has the money and know-how, as demonstrated with its live broadcasts of IPL cricket on YouTube.

However, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last month that it is unlikely to enter this field.

“My own opinion is it’s unlikely that we would go and then start competing with the traditional broadcast networks for sports rights,” Schmidt said at the Google Zeitgeist conference.

“That’s not our business. It’s more a question of can we build a platform which they can use to get even broader functions and even broader rights.”