When translation studies widened its scope and ventured upon examining film and television adaptations it faced a terminological problem. Eventhough adaptation shares a number of characteristics with translation it cannot be considered as such, warranting the introduction of a new term, namely "transfer", a superior category which includes both translation and adaptation. Drawing on Jakobson's famous three-part classification the author discusses the terminological problem and proceeds to explaining the transfer process. Secondly he provides some key characteristics of adaptation and concludes by looking at the similarities between translation and adaptation.