Strategies are described for coalescing the processing tasks associated with a series of control events that occur relatively close together in time. The coalescing can involve eliminating redundant tasks by more directly advancing to a terminal control state. One exemplary application of the control coalescing is in the playback of media content information in a networked environment. When a user enters a series of commands to repeatedly change the channel, or repeatedly seek new positions within a single stream, the control coalescing comes into play by aggregating these control events so that it requires fewer control processing tasks to perform. This provision helps reduce the latency associated with handling multiple control events that occur close together in time.