Google will launch its Internet – based TV service in Europe next year, expanding from the US, where the company already offers users the possibility to watch TV via the Internet on their TV sets. The announcement has been made by Google's chairman Eric Schmidt at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival.

"We seek to support the content industry by providing an open platform for the next generation of TV to evolve, the same way Android is an open platform for the next generation of mobile," Schmidt said. "We expect Google TV to launch in Europe early next year, and of course the U.K. will be among the top priorities," he added.

Google TV is a software platform that combines the current TV programming and the open web. It was launched in 2010 in the US.

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(photo source: CNN.com)