Professor Cathy Johnson's Inaugural Lecture – ‘Television Matters: Power, Platforms and the Public Good’

From childhood viewing to global platforms, this talk explores the structural decline of broadcast television, what’s at stake and why we should all care.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved watching television. It provides an endless source of companionship, entertainment and education, and has formed the focus of my academic career for over 25 years. When I began studying television it was frequently dismissed as trivial and not worthy of academic study, despite being the most powerful and used medium across the world. Today, it is undergoing a profound transformation. Streaming platforms and on-demand viewing have changed how we watch and broadcast television is in structural decline. In this lecture, I examine why television still matters and why its future should concern us all. Drawing on decades of research and the concept of ‘late broadcasting’, I’ll show how the move from broadcast to platform-controlled distribution brings significant risks: the erosion of public service broadcasting, the loss of regulatory frameworks, and the marginalisation of vulnerable audiences and culturally vital genres. Television has always mattered: it shapes culture, informs society and connects communities. It is more than a screen; it’s a cultural infrastructure. As we stand at a crossroads, this lecture asks: what kind of television future do we want, and how do we fight for it?

Catherine Johnson is Professor of Media and Communication in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK and the author/editor of six books and many articles. Her current research examines the implications of broadcast decline for the future of television industry, audiences and policy. She led the PSM-AP project (Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms), funded by a €1.5m CHANSE grant, that examined the impact of global streaming platforms on public service media in 6 countries. She is a member of the DCMS College of Experts and has advised the DCMS on the future of public service media and the future of TV distribution.