Patent ID: 7069571

Claim:
A method for retiring interactive applications associated with television broadcast programs by a broadcast receiver coupled to a display, the method comprising: receiving by the broadcast receiver an interactive application which is associated with a television program, and which includes a plurality of retirement instructions for retiring the interactive application in response to combinations of external events and internal program states; executing the interactive application by the broadcast receiver while concurrently displaying the television program; detecting an external event by the broadcast receiver indicating that the execution of the interactive application is no longer appropriate for the television program being displayed; detecting an internal program state of the interactive application, wherein the internal program state includes at least one of: a protected section state of an output of the executed interactive application and an unprotected section state of the output of the executed interactive application; retiring the interactive application by the broadcast receiver according to the retirement instructions associated with the detected external event and the internal program state of the interactive application; detecting that a second broadcast receiver installed upstream from the broadcast receiver controlling the interactive application has performed a channel change; and retiring the interactive application according to stored retirement instructions associated with said second broadcast receiver upstream channel change and the internal program state of the interactive application.