Channel surfing is the practice of quickly scanning through different television channels or radio frequencies in order to find something interesting to watch or listen to. The term is most commonly associated with television, where the practice became common with the advent of the remote control. The term has some connotations relating to laziness, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity. Channel surfing has been parodied on TV shows and in film, such as in the movie Toy Story.

Modern viewers, who may have cable or satellite services beaming down dozens if not hundreds of channels, are frequently caught channel surfing. It is common for people to scan channels when commercial broadcasters switch from a show over to running advertisements.

Channel surfing can be a detrimental factor in interpersonal relationships, as the person in control of the television or radio sometimes switches between different broadcasts faster than others in the vicinity can figure out what the program in question is.

Viewers' propensity to channel surf was apparently a factor leading toward the current ATSC standard for terrestrial digital television in North America. An ATSC signal can be locked onto and start being decoded within about one second, while it can take several seconds to begin decoding a DVB signal.

See also

• Scanner (radio)
• Web surfing