Method and apparatus for generating interactive programming in a communication network

Abstract

A system for presenting live video content to a plurality of participant client devices is disclosed. An interactive program, including the live video content and an interactive component, is generated and a moderator interface is provided to enable a user of a moderator client device to create a look for the interactive program. The live video content and the interactive component are simultaneously displayed on a display of each of a plurality of participant client devices with the look created by the user of the moderator client device. The live video content and a response to the live video content are simultaneously displayed at each of the participant client devices with the look created by the user of the moderator client. The interactive program and the response are archived so that users of the plurality of participant devices may continue to interact with the interactive program after termination of the interactive program.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A moderated interactive commerce and advertising system comprising at least one hardware processor, a hardware memory, and program instructions stored in the memory and executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to:
 generate interactive commerce programming by combining live moderated multimedia content and a first interactive component, the live moderated multimedia content including first product information;   provide the interactive commerce programming to a plurality of participant clients to cause each of the participant clients to present the live moderated multimedia content and the first interactive component together at a display of each of the participant clients;   receive from a first one of the plurality of participant clients a first participant response to the interactive commerce programming while the live moderated multimedia content is presented at the display of the first one of the plurality participant clients;   receive from a second one of the plurality of participant clients a second participant response to the interactive commerce programming while the live moderated multimedia content is presented at the display of the second one of the plurality of participant clients;   generate modified interactive commerce programming by updating the interactive commerce programming to include the first participant response, the second participant response, and second product information, the second product information being determined by the moderated interactive commerce and advertising system based on at least one of the first participant response and the second participant response;   provide the modified interactive commerce programming to each of the plurality of participant clients to cause each of the participant clients to present the modified interactive commerce programming at the display of each of the participant clients such that the live moderated multimedia content is presented together with the first participant response, the second participant response, and the second product information at the display of each of the plurality participant clients; and   initiate a commercial transaction for a product corresponding to at least one of the first product information and the second product information in response to an interaction with at least one of the interactive commerce programming and the modified interactive commerce programming by a user of at least one of the participant clients while the user is viewing at least one of the interactive commerce programming and the modified interactive commerce programming.