Technique for delivering entertainment programming content including interactive features in a communications network

A method for providing an entertainment program over a transmission channel, comprising:

• operating a processor to receive a data stream which includes program data representing the entertainment program, the data stream being transmitted through the transmission channel;
• detecting a demarcation between different program segments in the program data representing the entertainment program;
• determining whether the entertainment program has interactive application data associated with the detected demarcation which is to be inserted at a location in the data stream corresponding to the detected demarcation or if there is no interactive application data associated with the detected demarcation, the interactive application data being data which is to be processed to realize at least one interactive feature at a selected point of the entertainment program, no predetermined bandwidth of the transmission channel being required for transmission of the interactive application data;
• dynamically allocating bandwidth of the transmission channel for transmission of the interactive application data in response to determining that a detected demarcation has associated interactive application data;
• and
• inserting the interactive application data into the data stream for transmission through the transmission channel.