This paper argues that the proliferation of videocassette recorders in the United Kingdom, especially England, has altered the terms of all electronic--and possibly cinematic--viewing in that country, with the exception of areas where communal viewing is the dominant practice, where broadcast is the dominant distribution mode, and where cinema is strong enough to reduce the entertainment functions of television. Propositions concerning broadcast television and video as cultural discourses are then presented, and an attempt is made to draw links between the two: (1) television is radically heterogeneous; (2) television manufactures invisibility; (3) television is absent; (4) television is powerless; (5) television has to be produced as an object; (6) with video, television enters the age of mechanical reproduction; (7) videotapes don't talk back; (8) you cannot watch a video for the first time; and (9) video is out of control. It is concluded that video has become the center for the struggle over power in television, and that the aim of television studies should be to intervene in the production of televisual meaning, institutions, and education in order to produce an open, accessible, and democratic media culture that will service the needs of all the people. References are provided in the text. (CGD)