It's likely that millions of years ago, Johnny Dinosaur was busy eating leaves, completely unaware that far, far away in what we now call the Caribbean Sea, a giant asteroid had exploded. And that as he settled down to a nice bit of willow, a huge dust cloud was heading his way.

And so it goes with the big, widescreen world of television. For as long as most of us can remember, we've had something called schedules. Top Gear, for instance, goes out on a Sunday at 8pm. Just after something with Richard Hammond in it. And just before Richard Hammond on ice. Simple.

But very soon, the idea of sitting down at a specific time to watch a specific programme will end. Instead you'll watch whatever you want, whenever the mood takes you. You'll start at 9.14pm with Dr Who, And then after some music videos and a spot of pornography, you'll go to bed.

There won't be a BBC or an ITV or a Channel Four. There won't even be 'televisions'. There'll simply be a big vault of programmes which viewers will access on their computers. And that sounds great. No more waiting until Sunday to find out what Jack Bauer does next in 24. Just hit the yellow button and on with the story.

Already my kids have this mindset. They come home from school and after the homework is done (by me, usually), they settle down to watch The Simpsons, which seems to be on constantly.

Apparently, it's the same story with Top Gear. If you delve into the murky, Christian and porno depths of your satellite listings, you can always find a repeat. Usually of the dreadful episode where we all went to Iceland. And couldn't think of a single thing to say or do when we got there.

Anyway, my kids, with their Internets and their digital lives have no concept of scheduling. They can't understand why I want to watch the BBC news at 6pm when it's on permanently elsewhere.

Nor can they see much point in Top of the Pops when all the songs are on the Internet, the radio, MTV, VH1, their iPods, the car stereo and every CD in the bloody house. All the bloody time.