A system and method of adding hyperlinked information to a television
broadcast. The broadcast material is analyzed and one or more regions
within a frame are identified. Additional information can be associated
with a region, and can be transmitted in encoded form, using timing
information to identify the frame with which the information is
associated. The system comprising a video source and an encoder that
produces a transport stream in communication with the video source, an
annotation source, a data packet stream generator that produces encoded
annotation data packets in communication with the annotation source and
the encoder, and a multiplexer system in communication with the encoder
and the data packet stream generator. The encoder provides timestamp
information to the data packet stream generator and the data packet
stream generator synchronizes annotation data from the annotation source
with a video signal from the video source in response to the timestamp
information. The multiplexer generates a digital broadcast signal that
includes an augmented transport stream from the transport stream and the
encoded data packets. A receiver displays the annotation information
associated with the video signal in response to a viewer request on a
frame by frame basis. A viewer can respond interactively to the material,
including performing commercial transactions, by using a backchannel that
is provided for interactive communication.