Control of an operation of a multimedia terminal by an application, for example, a game or interactive television module, using remote control input signal is provided. An application is downloaded (S1), input signals from remote control units (RC-1, RC-2, RC-N) are received (S3) at the multimedia terminal, a message, including a source indication indicating the remote control from which the input signal was received, is sent (S5) to the downloaded application. According to the downloaded application, the operation of the multimedia terminal is controlled (S6) based on the source indication. The message may be sent to the downloaded application by an application program interface-based module resident at the multimedia terminal. A disable signal to disable a key could be transmitted to one or more of the remote control devices, for example, to disable the key for a specified time or a specified turn of a user.