Graham Roberts and Dorota Ostrowska radically rethink European cinema's post-war history from the perspective of television's impact on the culture of cinema's production, distribution, consumption, and reception. In every European country television has transformed the economic, technological, and aesthetic terms of cinema production. Its growing popularity has drastically reshaped cinema's audiences and forced governments to introduce policies to regulate the interaction between cinema and television. Cinematic criticism has been slow to address the impact of television, but this study recognizes its influence and offers a more authentic and richer history of European cinemas.

Graham Roberts和Dorota Ostrowska从电视对电影生产、发行、消费和接收文化的影响的角度，彻底地重新思考欧洲电影的战后历史。在每个欧洲国家，电视都改变了电影制作的经济、技术和审美条件。它的日益普及极大地重塑了电影院的观众，并迫使政府出台政策来规范电影和电视之间的互动。电影批评界在处理电视的影响方面进展缓慢，但这项研究认识到了电视的影响，并为欧洲电影提供了更真实、更丰富的历史。