CONCURRENT VIEWING OF VIDEO PROGRAMMING AND OF TEXT COMMUNICATIONS CONCERNING THE VIDEO PROGRAMMING

摘要

A system in which a video signal, such as a television program, is received and displayed to a viewer. The system has a user-selectable chat option in which the viewer can enter text messages (108) that will be displayed to other viewers of the video signal who have also selected the chat option. A transcript of the text messages from all of the viewers who have selected the chat option is displayed to all such viewers. The video signal is simultaneously displayed on a graphical user interface having a video region (118) for display of the video signal and a chat region (108) for display of the transcript of text messages.