Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for receiving logical address links in advance of a television program and combining such links with those that may be received in real-time during a television broadcast are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, content associated with a television (TV) program may be automatically displayed by a client system, such as an Internet terminal or a computer equipped with a TV tuner. Prior to broadcast of a TV program, TV listing information is stored in the client system. The TV listing information includes one or more batch mode logical addresses, e.g., Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), that identify content, such as Internet content. The client system alerts the viewer of the existence of an active logical address associated with the current TV program by providing a visual indication. After the visual indication has been selected by the viewer, the client system displays the content identified by the logical address. Additionally, one or more real-time logical addresses may be received by the client system embedded in a video signal associated with the TV program. The real-time logical addresses may be embedded in either a text service channel (e.g., T1, T2, T3, T4) or a captioning service channel (e.g., CC1, CC2, CC3, CC4) of the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of the video signal. When both real-time logical addresses and batch mode logical addresses are associated with a TV program, the client system determines which to bring to the attention of the user of the client system based upon a set of predefined rules. Importantly, features of the present invention are applicable to many broadcast television (TV) systems including National Television Standards Committee (NTSC), Phase Alternate Lines (PAL), and Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM) as well as the proposed High Definition Television (HDTV) standard.

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First Claim