It would also be impressive if, the LCD screen is able to "recognize" letters and numbers displayed as part of normal TV transmission, so a sequence of numbers might be recognized as a "phone number", an "address" etc. When you move your finger near the phone number it must display a phone icon and when you touch it it must Bluetooth with your phone to ring that number. If you touch the icon that appears "this text recognized as an address" then it will bluetooth with your PDA or notebook to "beam" the text to your computer or PDA. Hows that?

LCD screens are replacing CRT TV's, but as they are currently about twice the price for the same sie screen, it is a slow process.

Touch-sensitive screens do exist, they are in ticket machines, airport self check-in terminals etc. The touch-sensitive part is a layer in front of the screen, so they work with CRT and LCD screens.
You could make TV controls this way, but, you would get dirty finger marks all over your screen, and would have to keep getting up from your comfy chair!

LCD displays will always have some sort of edge, plenty of room for an IR sensor.And yes, CRT sets are cheap. Perhaps they should institute a CRT tax.

For "interactive" advertising, the advertiser could embed their contact info in the video stream, and have the TV, or more likely the STB, detect that data and relay it to a PC, or launch an further info page or something.

CRT High Definition TV's have a better picture than LCD's and don't suffer from permanent burn in. The disadvantage to CRT is the weight and the size limit (about 40 in for 4:3 and 34 in for 16:9)

LCDs and plasmas are getting better all the time.

For a matter of fact, last fall/christmas season, non-CRT sets outsold CRT sets.