1. A system comprising: a processor; and a computer readable storage device having stored thereon a set of instructions and data structures for implementing a television receiver, the instructions which when executed on the processor implement: a platform that hosts virtual machines that each implement an interactive television (iTV) format out of a plurality of formats of iTV; a registration method that receives an iTV detection plug-in from ones of the virtual machines during registration with the platform, the iTV detection plug-in allows detection of one of the plurality of iTV formats in a digital broadcast stream; and a list of virtual machines that are registered with the platform, each of the virtual machines implement one of the plurality of iTV formats; wherein the platform receives a digital broadcast stream, the platform analyzes the digital broadcast stream to determine which of the plurality of iTV formats is present in the digital broadcast stream, including the platform using an iTV detection plug-in received by the registration method, the platform searches the list for a virtual machine that matches the iTV format in the digital broadcast stream, the platform loads the virtual machine that matches the iTV format.