Patent ID: 8819725

Claim:
A method for presenting messages on a presentation device, comprising: receiving at a receiving device a message presentation request from a program distributor, the message presentation request having a first identifier that identifies at least one receiving device and a second identifier corresponding to one of a fixed message indicator and a dynamic message indicator, wherein the first identifier and the second identifier are already included in the message presentation request at a point the message presentation request is received from the program distributor, and wherein the second identifier is directly indicative of whether to retrieve a fixed message from a memory of the receiving device or instead receive a dynamic message via an information stream communicated from the program distributor; in response to receiving the fixed message indicator and the message presentation request identifying the receiving device as one of the at least one receiving devices, retrieving the fixed message from the memory of the receiving device based upon the fixed message indicator; in response to receiving the dynamic message indicator and the message presentation request identifying the receiving device as one of the at least one receiving devices, receiving the dynamic message via the information stream communicated from the program distributor; and presenting one of the fixed message and the dynamic message on the presentation device.