Speaking at a cable-industry trade conference, a Google exec has said the infrastructure of the internet can't handle mass delivery of television shows or movies, Reuters reports.

The admission was made by Vincent Dureau, who heads Google's TV technology department, at the Cable Europe Congress. Dureau said the internet, as it exists now, was not designed for the transfer of data on the scale required to deliver high-quality video as some broadcast networks and movie studios would like to have happen.

It's a matter of scale, with the systems that power Google's and others' networks unable to handle the volume of traffic that such content creates. Heavy investment is being made just to keep the user experience constant - though it has already degraded somewhat - under such usage demands.

Despite investments in infrastructure maintenance and improvement, all parties admit that the internet cannot yet handle the vision of TV programming or movies being fully available over the web.

Google has offered to work with content creators and distributors to find the best way to use its search technology (and the advertising that goes along with it) to help people find that content.