Changing Channels : Prospects for Television in a Digital World

This work sets out to explore the potential impact of technological and structural change on the audiovisual media in the light of the increasing likelihood of convergence between telecommunications, broadcasting and computing.

Although it could be argued that the future of broadcast television is irrelevant given the prospect of a multitude of digital services from which people select on demand, this vision of an interactive culture remains a distant goal for the immediate future.

Technical, financial and creative hurdles still have to be overcome for this to become a reality, and nobody knows at this stage whether the public will eventually buy into the new offerings.

For this reason, television is emerging as an important component of digital services.

Starting with some basic questions about the definitional, economic, cultural and political implications of change, the book provides an opportunity to construct conceptual and analytical base on which to judge future developments in the audiovisual field.