The potential threat posed by interactive television software is almost entirely hypothetical.
Like many of his colleagues at the interactive-television software company, the 31-year-old Flynn became a paper millionaire.
CBS will soon start allowing users of Boxee, an Internet television software package, to buy episodes of shows like "CSI".
"In Britain, interactive television is transforming the way people watch television," said James Ackerman, the chief executive of OpenTV, which provides interactive television software worldwide.
In recent weeks, Vivendi Universal put $1.5 billion into EchoStar Communications, an investment that will allow Vivendi to introduce its interactive television software to EchoStar subscribers.
Last week, however, AT&T's broadband division shelved a project to build a set-top cable box using Microsoft's interactive television software.
On Tuesday, Liberate announced the formation of an alliance that includes some of the largest makers of chips and television software.
In an apparent setback for Microsoft, Liberate Technologies said it would provide the interactive television software for almost half of AT&T's 14 million cable subscribers.
OpenTV, the largest provider of interactive television software, said yesterday that it would buy Spyglass Inc., which licenses Internet-access software and offers consulting services on Internet applications, in a stock deal valued at $2.5 billion.
According to several people familiar with Apple's television-related efforts, the company is working on an update to its television software, and will offer a completely redesigned interface for it.
