ABSTRACT
The history of modern Europe is littered with examples of the way in which technology can decisively influence politics: artillery, railways, telephones and nuclear power come immediately to mind. One of the striking areas of technological innovation in this century has been communications. ‘Off-air’ radio and (later) television broadcasting were clearly communications technologies of enormous political and economic potential, associated with the emergence of a mass, and apparently captive, national audience. In the 1970s it became clear that communications in general, and broadcasting in particular, were about to undergo further major (indeed a set of) technological transformations. Satellite communications and ‘broadband’ cable indicated a ‘third age of broadcasting’, as part of a new ‘wired society’ in which there would be a massively expanding market for information.1
