Google chairman attacks UK media red tape

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, has accused Britain of squandering its history of innovation in media and technology, in an address to television industry leaders in Edinburgh.

He said this had happened because of an inhospitable regulatory climate and poor technical education system. In the first MacTaggart lecture in 35 years to be delivered by a technologist, Schmidt also used his platform at the Edinburgh International Television Festival to praise the UK’s media industry and offer to help it adapt as the Internet ushers in a “golden age” of TV.