Abstract: Information from an information resource may be displayed with television video in a synchronized fashion. A trigger, broadcast along with the television video, identifies the resource and indicates how information from the resource should display. When a trigger is received, the receiver unit determines whether a rule stored in the receiver unit applies to the trigger. For example, if the rule applies, the receiver unit may take a predetermined action, or if the rule does not apply, the rule may have no effect and the receiver unit may act upon the trigger in a normal or default fashion. Based on one or more rules, the receiver unit may ignore certain triggers, but not others. Rules can be automatically loaded into the receiver unit on power-up by one-way broadcast communication, from a permanent storage device, or by downloading from the Internet. The rules can be updated periodically.

Abstract: Described are methods and apparatus for simultaneously enhancing two or more unique HTML pages (information resources) using a single enhancement trigger. A content creator, (e.g., a program producer, broadcaster, affiliate, cable company, or satellite provider), embeds an enhancement trigger in a data service channel of a broadcast video signal. The embedded enhancement trigger includes a collective resource identifier that identifies two or more information resources, such as a collection of different HTML pages. The content creator can then broadcast the enhancement trigger to the several information resources to enhance them all using a single enhancement trigger.

Abstract: An interactive television trigger has a time attribute value that indicates a future time when the trigger is to be executed. In many situations, the trigger is sent to the receiver unit prior to the future time (e.g., to account for bandwidth limitations or to allow prefetching of an information resource associated with the trigger). Redundant triggers may be sent as the future time draws closer. In this way, if the receiver unit did not receive a previously sent trigger for some reason, a redundant trigger is available for execution. The receiver unit may ignore duplicate triggers. The time attribute value also may indicate a life span during which the trigger is valid so that, if a user switches video channels but returns to a video channel for which execution of the trigger is desired, the trigger may be re-executed during the life span.

Abstract: An interactive television trigger has a time attribute value that indicates a future time when the trigger is to be executed. In situations where the trigger cannot be sent to the receiver unit at the desired time of trigger execution (for example, due to limited available bandwidth of a communication channel to the receiver unit), the trigger is sent prior to the future time. The receiver unit then executes the trigger on the receiver unit at the future time as indicated by the time attribute. The trigger can be sent well before the future time so that a receiver unit that receives the trigger can prefetch an information resource identified by the trigger prior to the future time such that the information resource is already available on the receiver unit when the trigger is later executed at the future time.