Patent ID: 7308697

Claim:
A system for providing customizable multimedia messages over a television system to a communications terminal for presentation to a user, comprising: a plurality of application servers that each generate a message configuration that defines a presentation format for an associated message content, the presentation format unique to each of the plurality of application servers, each of the plurality of application servers being capable of providing interactive services that enable a communications terminal to communicate over the television system; a carousel file server system; a multimedia messaging client application located in the communications terminal; and a multimedia messaging server coupled to the carousel file server system, the multimedia messaging server configured to receive the message configuration from each of the plurality of application servers and associate the associated message content for presentation to a user according to the message configuration, the multimedia messaging server configured to generate a request on behalf of each of the plurality of application servers according to the message configuration, the request including a reference to a location of the message content located on the carousel file server system and a reference to a location of the message configuration on the carousel file server system, wherein the plurality of application servers, the carousel file server system, and the multimedia messaging server are located in a headend, the multimedia messaging server being capable of managing the delivery of the request over the television system to the communications terminal, thereby conserving system bandwidth, wherein, upon receiving the request, the multimedia messaging client application retrieves the message content and the message configuration at the referenced locations of the carousel file server system and associates the message content and the message configuration for presentation of the message content according to the message configuration.