Document data structure and method for integrating broadcast television with web pages

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A method and system are described for incorporating broadcast television into-Web pages.
In accordance with the invention, broadcast TV can be embedded into Web pages using, for example, a "tv:" URI in conjunction with common HTML tags, such as the image tag "<IMG>," the object tag "<OBJECT>," and the background tag "<BACKGROUND>.
" Within the "tv:" attribute, a Web-page author can reference a broadcast TV station by channel number, network, or broadcast call letters.
In accordance with the invention, HTML documents are parsed to recover both the conventional tags and tags that include TV attributes.
The resulting Web pages display the identified broadcast TV in a frame specified by the TV attribute.
One embodiment of the invention supports the presentation of television in the background of an HTML document.
In that embodiment, HTML tags corresponding to overlying HTML content are provided with an attribute that defines a level of transparency.
The transparency attribute allows content providers to overlay any type of HTML information over a broadcast television show without completely obscuring the underlying show.
This aspect of the invention also employs a z attribute that can be used to specify the relative position of broadcast television and overlying HTML content.
Other features of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the following detailed description.