Does television still exist?

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Student Number: 06974612                Wednesday 26th November 2008

        Contemporary Screen Media

Does television still exist? If television was once defined by technological scarcity, flow and the schedule, but is now experienced as plentiful, fragmented and individualised, then is it still television at all?

Throughout its history, in most of the world, television has been controlled and regulated by state bodies. As well as commercial value and aspects, television has played a pivotal role in socialisation throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Here in the United Kingdom, the world of television has been regulated by the government. The government also fund the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) through a form of taxation whereby every household with a television set is liable to pay an annual television license fee. Although the government fund the BBC, the BBC is not controlled by the government and therefore is an independent company. They do however have to follow their stated mission, which is ‘to inform, educate and entertain’, as laid down by  in the ; and it is also required by its charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and to answer only to its viewers and listeners.

There are of course commercial channels in the United Kingdom which are also terrestrial. These are ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. These channels are allowed to show advertising for a limited period of time on every hour of broadcasting. The fact that all of the above terrestrial channels now all have multiple channels is an important point to note in the new age of television.

In the United Kingdom there are also several cable and satellite television options available which give access to hundreds of non terrestrial channels. These include Freeview, Virgin Media, BT Vision and Sky.

An important aspect of television which has changed over the past decade or so is the increase in subscription to non terrestrial television services such as those mentioned above. In the past television was ‘scarce’, meaning that people only had, and could therefore only watch the terrestrial channels and what was on them at the time they tuned in. However, now television has moved into an age of ‘availability’, meaning that television is readily available to the viewer. There are a ridiculous number of channels and shows to choose from at any time of the day.

In the era of scarcity, programme-makers generated ideas for programmes and offered them to their senior management. Management selected what they considered the best of these ideas, with an eye to generic mix and the overall social purpose of their channel. The offers of ideas from programme-makers drove the whole system along. In the era of availability, this system has begun to atrophy. Instead a demand led system has developed. (Ellis, 2000. p132)

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In this era of ‘availability’, it is now scarce for households to not have some form of television extra to that of terrestrial channels. To not have subscription TV seems to somehow disable you socially, be it by not having money to afford it, or by not being able to watch a certain channel or show that everyone is talking about.  According to National Statistics, in April 2007, 2 in 3 UK households had digital TV service.

With digital Television there has also been a rise in technology for ‘On-Demand’ or ‘Anytime’ TV, as well as the increasing number ...

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