Abstract: A display system for providing programmable on-screen displays for a subscriber terminal, includes a control processor and a display processor which generates such displays from stored display information and display attributes. The control processor executes display routines to configure the display processor and to load the display data into a display memory. The display routines, display attributes and display data are programmable and can be varied for optimal use of the display processor. In one implementation, such information can be modified by changing the programming in non-volatile memory of the subscriber terminal, either by switching ROM or Flash EPROM ICs or by a plug in module. Another implementation includes downloading the information with other executable code and data in the read/write portions of the non-volatile memory.