This paper describes a study which compared an actual television schedule with an "abstract" schedule in order to determine what the forces are that forge a television schedule and how these forces interact. The report is presented in six sections: (1) a statement of the problem; (2) a discussion of the notion of the abstract schedule and the criteria that inform it; (3) an analysis of the actual schedule of transmissions on British network television between April 1972 and March 1985; (4) a discussion of the forces that produce divergences between the actual and the abstract schedule, including cultural, political and economic forces; (5) a discussion of forces that produce convergence between the schedules, which seem to stem primarily from the rising costs of programming; and (6) a description of the British abstract schedule, which was based on a study of the use made of acquired programming by three ITV (Independent Television) companies to determine both the source of a given program category and its function in the schedule. It is concluded that a free market in television services will lead towards the abstract schedule as surely as the actual British schedule, beset by the need to lower its costs, seems to want to, and that the present level and power of regulation is incapable of preventing it. Copies of two newspaper articles and four tables displaying analyses of data are appended. (CGD)