| 摘要 |
In a cable television system(10) in accordance with the invention, program materials are made available to subscribers in a neighborhood on an as needed basis. Specifically, when a subscriber at a set-top terminal (128-1) selects a program channel to watch, the selection request is transmitted to a headend (100) of the system. In response to such a request, a controller(112) in the headend determines whether the material of the selected program channel has been made available to the neighborhood. If it has been made available, the controller identifies to the set-top terminal (128-1) the carrier which is carrying the requested program material, and to which the set-top terminal tunes to obtain the requested program material. Otherwise, the controller (112) assigns an unused carrier to carry the requested program material, and informs the set-top terminal of the identity of the newly assigned carrier. The controller(112) also retires those carriers assigned for the program channels which are no longer watched by the subscribers in the neighborhood. |
