ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the need for rethinking what scheduling means in multi-platform television in the tensions between a linear and a non-linear television paradigm as well as changing viewer habits. The characteristics of the two paradigms are presented, and building on the literature arguing for a linear ‘takeover’ of the television industry, the book asserts the need for a ‘third television paradigm’ as a result of the way the television industry navigates between linear and non-linear television paradigms. It is marked by the interplay of powerful structures guiding television development and technological change. The point of departure is that in the traditional linear television paradigm the schedule connects and merges industrial and cultural-political dimensions of television’s role in a democratic society. The extreme case of the small Danish television market is used as an empirical focus for the analysis in the book because of the presence of popular public service media companies with strong multi-platform portfolios and Denmark’s being an advanced digital society. Second, the chapter introduces the communicative dimensions, the three tiers of the schedule as a televisual genre and why the schedule is an essential part of what is known as ‘television’ in television studies. Even if the research literature is small there have been two waves of scholarly interest, and the book contributes to a third wave of academic interest. However, it does so with a production studies approach to the present changes to the schedule and to scheduling in the digital era. In the final section of the chapter the structure of the book and the content of the following chapters are presented.
