Provided is a remote control apparatus which includes a display panel, a control detecting part for detecting a swipe of a contact point by a continuous contact control to the display panel, a command generating part for finding a first direction from a positional relationship between a contact starting point and a first swipe point swiped from the contact starting point, generating a control command indicating start of a swipe in the first direction, finding a second direction from a positional relationship between the contact starting point and a second swipe point swiped from the first swipe point, and generating a control command indicating stop of the swipe in the first direction and start of a swipe in the second direction in the case where the second direction differs from the first direction, and a command transmitting part for transmitting the generated control command to a television.