ABSTRACT
This chapter returns to the tensions between the two television paradigms in Chapter 1 and raps up the results and conclusions from the empirical work in Chapters 3–6. It then continues to present the fundamental features of a third television paradigm: digital television that the current practices of scheduling are producing. The chapter elaborates five issues for discussion about the television industry and television as a medium in the digital era: First, no simple distinctions between a linear and a non-linear television paradigm seem fruitful as a point of departure for empirical studies. Second, a theoretical understanding of television development as technologically driven and linear must be questioned too. Third, the political and cultural contexts in which television as a medium and the specific companies are embedded are very important, and this will produce differences between the kind of television we experience now and that which we will experience in the future. No fixed or unified development of television can be expected across the television industry even if television is an international phenomenon. Fourth, public service television is able to adapt technologically and culturally, and has proven to be very adaptive, flexible and pragmatic throughout television history. Especially in the Nordic countries, companies are very strong institutions with political agency and are popular among the audience because of their ability to cater to and stimulate new viewer habits. And fifth, in the theoretical conceptualisation of television not only change but also continuity and sustainability need to be considered if we want to understand and contribute to a re-formulated television theory for the digital era.
