Patent ID: 7861259

Claim:
A method for tailoring delivery of interactive content in an interactive television (ITV) system comprising: specifying, under control of a computer, a group profile directed to a group of viewers having a shared characteristic; maintaining a table of a plurality of trigger events and corresponding event messages, each trigger event triggering a specific interactive experience via the corresponding event message; specifying, under control of the computer, a specific trigger event for the group profile, the specific trigger event being selected from the plurality of trigger events; storing, under control of the computer, the specific trigger event in association with the group profile; delivering a television program associated with an interactive television program application to a plurality of viewers, the interactive television program application presenting the plurality of viewers with a first type of interactive experience during the television program; determining, under control of the computer, whether the plurality of viewers match the group profile by determining whether the plurality of viewers have the shared characteristic; based on a determination that the plurality of viewers match the group profile, monitoring and aggregating interactions with the interactive television program application by the plurality of viewers, wherein the aggregating includes adding a value associated with a first interaction by a first one of the plurality of viewers to a second value associated with a second interaction by a second one of the plurality of viewers, and outputting an aggregate value in response; determining, by an ITV server, whether the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event stored in association with the group profile; based on a determination that the aggregate value satisfies the specific trigger event, retrieving, by the ITV server, the event message corresponding to the specific trigger event; selecting by the ITV server ITV data associated with the event message; and transmitting the selected ITV data to a plurality of receivers associated with the plurality of viewers, wherein each of the plurality of receivers is configured to retrieve ITV content in response to the received ITV data, wherein the retrieved ITV content dynamically modifies, during the television program, the first type of interactive experience presented to the plurality of viewers with a modified interactive experience.