Duncan joins Grade in attack on Google

Just weeks after the ITV executive chairman called the search engine a “parasite”, Duncan told Broadcast it was time Google started “giving back” to create a level playing field with broadcasters.

He said: “Google takes more ad revenue out of the UK than ITV makes and it is not regulated. It isn't fair that it's not reinvesting that back into content and independent film production companies in the UK.”

He went on: “Google should pay for content that it uses. The burden of responsibility should be on it to identify the people whose content it is using and make sure they are being paid for it, rather than expecting other people to point it out.”

In response, Google said its platforms were based on sharing and that it had given back $5bn last year to its global partners including C4.

A spokesman said: “YouTube is a free platform for the creative industries to share their content with a global audience and has helped spawn a new generation of talent.

“Google and YouTube are committed to copyright enforcement, taking measures to discourage users from posting copyrighted material and using industry-leading technology such as VideoID to help content owners identify and monetise their material.”

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has indicated the government is keen to step up regulation of the internet and new minister for communication, technology and broadcasting Stephen Carter is considering the issue in his Digital Britain review, due next year.

Google, AOL and social networking sites Facebook and Bebo are already in talks with the Advertising Association to introduce a list of standard requirements to self-regulate content on their sites.

But Duncan called on the government to set out clear rules surrounding issues of taste, decency, harm and offence.

“Let's wait and see whether anything comes out of it but it's a step forward to say discussions have started,” he said.

He added that, as the biggest web player, Google needed to “take more responsibility than it currently does”.

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