Methods and systems for the mass customization of Digital Television broadcasts
through the broadcasting of commercials in the form of software applications. Ad-applications
are injected into various sub-streams of the transport stream and received in a
dormant state by the client-side set-top box. When a commercial is to be shown,
a broadcaster broadcasts a generic time-stamped trigger to a dispatching application
that performs a keyword matching algorithm to decide which ad-application among
those received at the receiver is to be executed. The dispatching application uses
the results of the latter comparison to decide which specific dormant ad-application
to route to; it then converts the generic trigger into a chosen-ad trigger that
is routed to the chosen ad-application. Upon receipt of the chosen-ad trigger,
the chosen ad-application executes, thereby displaying an ad customized to the
individual viewer's interests.
