This conference proposes an examination of contemporary television under the impact of new platforms for production, dissemination and consumption such as Netflix and Amazon, coming after earlier technological and cultural dislocations of television such as cable, satellite, and home recording practices. These shifts have already displaced television from a stable technological apparatus, conventional television institutions and networks and schedule-based viewing. The latest turn of this ongoing series of transformations, poses questions of whether this is leading to a wider transformation of the very definition of the medium itself, as well as facilitating new forms of transmediality and transnationality in television production and consumption practices.

Are series produced by, disseminated on and/or consumed via these new platforms still television and if so in what senses? Is television now only understood in terms of audiovisual digital content with a serial form, and if so what distinguishes it from other digital content such as web series that may also be serial and audiovisual? Finally, is it useful to refer in this context to ‘post-television’ in line with the recently proposed term of ‘post-cinema’ in order to understand the radical technological and cultural transformations of what is nonetheless still widely recognised and understood in terms of televisual form?

Drawing attention especially to the appearance of more Trans as well as LGBTQ figures within such recent US series as Orange is the New Black, Transparent, Sense8 and others, this conference will propose the idea that television itself is going through its own ‘trans’ period, an unpredictable metamorphosis of its identity, arguably allowing for richer post-network complexity in televisual narratives, characterization, style and aesthetics. At the same time, it is important to look closely at how these aesthetic shifts are related to industrial practices like commissioning, international co-productions and modes of consumption in an era in which television content may be primarily designed to be consumed via these new platforms, even if produced by a more conventional television organisation. In order to address these shifts in both industrial practices and television aesthetics, the conference will consist of both theoretical/analytic and industry/production studies streams, as well as roundtables bringing these streams together.