PROVIDING MULTIMEDIA ON DEMAND IN A NEAR ON DEMAND ENVIRONMENT.

摘要

A method (400) for providing multimedia presentations on demand in a near on demand environment. The method comprises providing beginning segments (402) for pre-recording by subscribers. Each beginning segment (310) corresponds to ones of a plurality of multimedia presentations and each beginning segment has a duration (L) at least as long as a predetermined time interval (Ti-To). Each one of the plurality of multimedia presentations are transmitted concurrently on a plurality of channels with identical presentations transmitted on different channels with start times of each transmission having a periodic interval not exceeding the predetermined time interval (Ti-To).