The DTV platform architecture is based on open internet standards. There is effectively a browser in the set-top box, Liberate's DTV Navigator, which supports HTML 3.2, Javascript 1.1 and SSL.

This means you can use your existing server-side web architecture – databases, back-end servers, e-commerce systems, cgi scripts.

There are no physical restrictions to the size/amount of content, as all hosting is external to ntl (hosting arranged separately by you).

You don't have to maintain multiple data sets. Your TV site is just another 'device' requiring a different content template.

However, you do need to understand the ntl platform in terms of being a 'distributed' architecture with a 'thin' client.

The set-top box is much less powerful than a PC, and so most of the processing work (that would normally by done by your PC) is done by a series of interconnecting servers rather than on the set-top box.

A large amount of caching is built into the architecture to maximise performance of the service to the user.