Patent ID: 7725918

Claim:
A method for providing an interactive television (ITV) program, the method comprising: generating by a broadcasting end a single ITV stream for controlling an interactive event display by first and second ITV receivers, wherein the first ITV receiver runs on a platform different than a platform on which the second ITV receiver runs, the singly generated ITV stream including a platform independent code configured to be decoded and interpreted by the first and second ITV receivers irrespectively of the particular ITV platform on which the first and second ITV receivers run, for providing the interactive event display; preloading into a first memory of the first ITV receiver, a first platform dependent ITV command generated according to the platform of the first ITV receiver; preloading into the second memory of the second ITV receiver, a second platform dependent ITV command generated according to the platform of the second ITV receiver; transmitting from the broadcasting end the singly generated ITV stream with the encoded platform independent code to both the first and second ITV receivers; retrieving by the first and second ITV receivers the platform independent code from the received ITV stream; searching by the first and second ITV receivers for respectively the first and second platform dependent ITV commands stored in respectively the first and second memories resident in respectively the first and second ITV receivers, based on the retrieved platform independent code; retrieving by the first and second ITV receivers from respectively the first and second memories the first and second platform dependent ITV commands associated with the platform independent code, based on the search; and executing by the first and second ITV receivers the retrieved first and second platform dependent ITV commands for controlling the interactive event display to users of the first and second ITV receivers.