Patent ID: 7610598

Claim:
A television receiving apparatus that receives data via a plurality of types of transmission media and that switches between the plurality of transmission media, comprising: a first data receiving unit that receives communication data in accordance with an Internet communication protocol via the Internet from an external device; a second data receiving unit that receives broadcast data via a broadcast network from a broadcast station, wherein the broadcast data includes event program data accompanied by a plurality of event messages; a decoder that decodes, in accordance with a first decoding method, the communication data received via the Internet by the first data receiving unit and that decodes, in accordance with a second decoding method, the broadcast data received by the second data receiving unit, wherein the first decoding method and the second decoding method are different from one another; a display control unit that, when the decoder decodes the communication data received via the Internet, controls to display the decoded communication data on a display, and when the decoder decodes the broadcast data received from the broadcast station, controls to display the received broadcast data on the display; a memory unit that stores the event program data received by the second data receiving unit; and a control unit that, when the decoder is decoding the communication data received via the Internet in accordance with the first decoding method, and a first event message that accompanies the event program data is received by the second receiving unit, switches the decoder in response to the first event message from decoding the communication data to decoding the event program data read from the memory unit so as to display the event program by the display control unit on the display, and when a second event message that accompanies the event program data is received by the second receiving unit, switches the decoder in response to the second event message from decoding the event program data to decoding the communication data received via the Internet so that the decoded communication data is displayed by the display control unit on the display.