Transmission and reception of television programs and other data

摘要

In a digital television system, a receiver/decoder (2020) (or "set-up control box") can download one of more of several applications, which can be run by the receiver/decoder (2020) to provide interactivity with the user. These applications include: an Internet browser application which uses a PSTN connection to make Internet requests and the television signal path to receive Internet responses; a shopping application operable in an "impulse" mode and a "catalogue" mode; a banking application; a quiz application which runs in synchronism with a quiz television program; a magazine browser application; and a weather or traffic application. The user hardware (10) is connected to an application and data service channel (4006) via a switched public telephone network (12). Said application and data service channel (4006) can be connected to the Internet (16) via an interface (14) in a known manner and can communicated with the user hardware (10) via an multiplexer and encoder (2004) a transmitter (2008) a satellite transponder (2014) and a ground receiver (2018).