Interactive content preservation and customization technology is placed at the broadcast facility to ensure reliable transmission of the interactive content to a local subsystem. An interactive content code detector detects interactive content codes in the video stream at the broadcast facility. The interactive content code detector is placed in the transmission path before the video stream is transmitted to broadcast facility hardware that may strip out, destroy, corrupt or otherwise modify the interactive content and interactive content codes. Once an interactive content code detector detects a code, an interactive broadcast server determines what action to take, and instructs an data insertion unit accordingly. The interactive content codes or interactive content may be placed in a portion of the video that is guaranteed by the broadcast facility to be transmitted, for example, the closed caption region of the vertical blanking interval.