ABSTRACT
There can be little doubt that in the early 1970s we are already in a new generation of communications technology, and that much of this is centred on new forms of television. At the same time we are in a very contentious and confused situation about the institutions and social processes of all communications. There is still an unfinished struggle and argument over the institutions and control of sound and vision broadcasting: the conflict that has been clear for two generations between ‘public service’ and ‘commercial’ institutions and policies. It would be a major error to suppose that this conflict is over; indeed the signs are that it is now entering one of its most acute and difficult phases. But at the same time the actual and prospective development of new kinds of technology is altering some of the terms of this long-standing conflict, and may, if we are not careful, merely confuse it. On the other hand, some of the new technical developments seem to open the way to institutions of a radically different kind from either ‘public service’ or ‘commercial’ 140broadcasting; indeed of a different kind, in some cases, from ‘broadcasting’ itself.
