That said,

You’ll note that in more recent “freeview” STB Advertisements (http://www.jbhifi.com.au/home-theatre/video-recorders/) , (freeview having an integral relationship to ABC; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24730277-7582,00.html ) incorporate dual tuners, storage and other “pvr” functionality.

Over DVB-SI, meta-data can be sent to compliant STB’s. this metadata can include XML Strings, or TVA CRID Values. (mind, there are a couple of IETF Ratified methods)

Utilising this methodology, its not a far leap to include ethernet into these STB’s. (in fact, many already do…)

From a content perspective, its important to maintain consistancy with existing standards, such as DVD, Blu-RAY and MHP / MHEG5, etc.

Within specifications such as Blu-Ray, includes requirements for H.264, VC1 and MPEG2. Whilst many STB Specifications also include AJAX, XML and HTML 4.01 browser support.

In past, many Embedded OS Browser Stacks (with the exception of the OPERA for Devices) did not include Flash.

As such; for a broadcaster who may have a view towards incorporating On-Demand “mediaguides” for STB’s (including TiVo’s) its may be seen important to ensure their STB’s interface stacks do not require Macromedia Flash.

But then, i’m not really upto date with the politics in this area. I just hope their progressing towards better solutions for the overall lifecycle of related content industries, and the people involved throughout.