The history of television is a history of change. From vacuum tubes, to transistors, to chips; from broadcast, to narrowcast, to on-demand; from cathode ray tube receivers, to plasma flatscreens, to projection; from a programmer's vision, to the viewer's choice, to the interworkings of metadata protocols and ‘smart agents’ … we have witnessed an ongoing process of transformation in technology, textual organization, regulatory frameworks, and viewing practices. The pace of change has been as dramatic as it has been uneven. Regulation, infrastructure, national interest, and viewer expectation have all, at times, stimulated development, or suppressed it. Overall, the pace of television's change as a set of technologies and practices is striking when compared to the relative stasis of film, radio and print – all, certainly, media with their own developmental dynamics.

I write at a moment of accelerated change, a moment when in many nations, analogue broadcasting has officially ended, giving way to digital-only television. The change mandates modifications in the receiving apparatus, and offers the promise of not only ‘more’ but more interactive programming and services. It is a moment accompanied by new display technologies (flatscreen, PDAs, high definition), ‘intelligent’ interfaces (programmable DVR systems), and cross-platform production and viewing practices. It is a moment where we can ever more clearly anticipate the end of the thirty-second advertisement, the weakening of once monopolistic broadcasting networks (and their afterlife in cable and satellite distribution) thanks to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and the redefinition of traditional producing and consuming roles through developments such as YouTube. Add to this, advances in surveillance video (facial recognition), teleconferencing (virtual presence), large screen simulcast in our stadiums, concert halls and streets, and easy access to television from almost any producing national culture (mysoju.com), and once ‘invisible’ forms of television are adding to the noise. It is a moment of confusion, as much for viewers, who seem to have difficulties distinguishing among these new practices, as for the medium's industries, themselves in a state of flux, seeking to secure their market positions and to catch the ‘next big thing’.

Rather more remarkable, considering the pervasive nature of these transformations, is the oasis of calm that lingers on in our memories in the form of the respectably solid broadcast era. Today's transformations seem all the more radical given this apparently stable past.