The Asus-manufactured Nexus is the company's first own-branded tablet and will go on sale in the UK on July 19 for £169, but without a full library of content.
International rights issues mean that manufacturers must strike rights deals for music and TV shows in individual countries, but Google has so far only managed to sign successful agreements in the US.
The setback leaves questions on how it will fare next to the Apple iPad, which costs almost double the price but boasts a huge library of music, films and TV shows.
However, the design of Google's Nexus 7 tablet makes its closest rival in the tablet market Amazon, which also failed to settle content rights with media groups last year. As a result it has been unable to launch its Kindle Fire in the UK.
"There is certainly a big question mark over how worthwhile it is for device manufacturers to build those relationships," analyst Mark Mulligan told The Guardian.
"It is not just the cost of licensing but the difficulties of licensing and how you might have to compromise user experience. It is harder for Google to get as much back from the very significant investment that this requires."
A Google spokesman said: "We want to bring different types of content to as many places as we can, but we don't have anything more to share on timing. We plan to continue expanding the Movies & TV shows category to more countries in the coming months."
Source: Guardian
Advertisement
