Google chairman Eric Schmidt is set to offer a conciliatory tone to the television industry on Friday when he delivers the set piece MacTaggart lecture to the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Friday.

Admitting that “Google needs you” Schmidt will attempt to bury past animosity over copyright violations to work with the industry in future.

This will see the firm admit that it needs content creators to survive and thus collaborate to produce more compelling content to drive searches and advertising.

The about turn follows previous revenue sharing arrangements and a crackdown on pirated material initiated by Google’s boffins.