1. An apparatus for selectively distributing messages over a communications network comprising: a controller for communicating over the network with a plurality of subscriber terminals in a plurality of subscriber households served by the communications network, each of said subscriber terminals having a network address; a reservoir of data operatively associated with said controller, said reservoir containing network addresses of said subscriber terminals and subscriber profile data associated with each of said subscriber households and including demographic data; a source of commercial messages; selection means operatively associated with said controller for selecting at least one of said commercial messages for transmission to at least one of said subscriber terminals based on the subscriber profile data associated with said at least one subscriber terminal; and identifying means operatively associated with said controller for identifying the selected at least one commercial message with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal; said controller causing the transmission, over said network from said source to said at least one subscriber terminal, of commercial messages identified with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal.