TELEVISION IN THE ERA OF DIGITAL ABUNDANCE: Ontology of Authority Through Legitimized Scarcity

The existence of public frequency broadcast-based television in the digital era presents an ontological paradox demanding deep philosophical investigation: technologically and economically, it has lost competitive efficiency, yet institutionally it remains strictly maintained by various types of institutions. This paper does not aim to analyze television as a functional communication instrument, but rather to investigate the condition of possibility of its existence as an ontological entity. Through approaches from philosophy of media, political ontology, and infrastructure phenomenology, the main argument proposed is that television represents a scarcity-based ontological regime, which constitutes a metaphysical prerequisite for institutional authority. Unlike digital space operating in a logic of infinite abundance and thereby dissolving authority hierarchies, television constitutes public space through access restrictions legitimized by legal and technical means. Furthermore, this paper argues that television’s relevance does not depend on consumption metrics (viewership metrics), but rather on the psychological presence of its infrastructure (psychological presence of infrastructure). Television is strictly defined in this paper as a public frequency broadcast receiver device (broadcast receiver)—both analog and digital (DVB-T2)—that captures signals through a tuner, not screen de- vices accessing content through internet protocols. This argument is expanded not only for the state, but for every institution requiring an autonomous mode of existence in public space: regional governments, universities, political parties, and corporations. Its continuity is an ontological necessity where being is more fundamental than appearing. This paper concludes that television is the last ontological bastion where authority can be institutionalized through legitimized scarcity, amid a storm of digital abundance that dissolves all institutional hierarchies. This paper further warns that real- locating broadcast frequency spectrum to internet data infrastructure entails permanent ontological consequences: institutions transition from sovereign space-owners to dependent tenants in privately- governed ecosystems. The democratization offered is illusory—authority substantively transfers to algorithmic authorities who are not democratically accountable. The implications of such ontological migration are irreversible: once frequency is lost, institutional sovereignty in communication space cannot be recovered. This constitutes what this paper terms ontological lock-in—a permanent structural transformation that cannot be reversed through ordinary policy processes.