Patent ID: 7584491

Claim:
An interactive enabling system for managing interactive program content associated with enhanced program content and interactive commercial content associated with commercial spots, the system comprising: an interactive enabling device coupled for receiving a broadcast stream, said broadcast stream including the enhanced program content in series with the commercial spots, the broadcast stream further including program pre-triggers, interactive program triggers, commercial pre-triggers, and interactive commercial triggers for retrieving the interactive program content and interactive commercial content; and at least one interactive content server coupled for communicating with an interactive control application in the interactive enabling device; wherein the interactive enabling device executes the interactive control application to manage the retrieval of the interactive program and commercial content from the at least one interactive content server in response to the program and commercial pre-triggers and make available the interactive program and commercial content in response to the interactive program and commercial triggers, wherein the interactive program and commercial content includes a plurality of segments, each segment including multiple pre-triggers, and each pre-trigger of the multiple pre-triggers for a segment corresponding to a particular type of communication link speed, wherein the interactive enabling device is operable to respond to a commercial pre-trigger embedded in the enhanced program content and a program pre-trigger embedded in a commercial spot, wherein the interactive control application includes a gatekeeper function for selectively retrieving interactive program and commercial content in response to recognized interactive program and commercial triggers, and wherein the interactive enabling device is configured for receiving and responding to the program pre-triggers, the interactive program triggers, the commercial pre-triggers, and the interactive commercial triggers embedded in the broadcast stream to ensure that the interactive program and commercial content do not overlap and interfere with each other.