VIRTUAL CHANNELS FOR A MULTIPLEXED ANALOG COMPONENT (MAC) TELEVISION SYSTEM

A decoder for use in a television system. The decoder includes a receiver for receiving a television signal having at least one channel. Each channel of the television signal includes video and audio components. A channel maps the channel received by the receiver to a plurality of virtual channels. A first virtual channel utilizes a first combination of video and audio components of the received channel and a second virtual channel utilizes a second combination of video and audio components of the same received channel different than the first combination. A selector allows a subscriber to select one of the virtual channels. Linked text pages may also be mapped to one or more of the virtual channels.