A method for facilitating adaptive streaming of a common piece of content, the content comprising a video stream, audio stream, or audiovisual stream, the method comprising: encoding, using a transcoder (110, 111), the common piece of content into a plurality of encodings, such that each encoding comprises the content in a different format, and such that each encoding comprises a set of independently specified portions, wherein each independently specified portion comprises a group of frames that is decodable without accessing a frame outside said independently specified portion, each independently specified portion beginning with an intra-coded frame that is decodable without using information from other frames, and wherein the encoding is performed such that the intra-coded frames of each encoding occur at a constant time interval for all encodings such that the independently specified portions are of constant time duration; receiving, at a device, the plurality of encodings; identifying, by the device, a time when a common location within the plurality of encodings was received for each encoding of the plurality of encodings, the common location corresponding to a program time value indicating when a frame appears in the common piece of content; based on the identified times, calculating, by the device an amount of delay for each encoding of the plurality of encodings such that delaying each encoding of the plurality of encodings by the calculated amount allows for the common location to be transmitted at a same time; delaying (603, by the device, each encoding of the plurality of encodings by its corresponding calculated amount of delay to result in a synchronized plurality of encodings in which the common location is synchronized; transmitting, by the device, the synchronized plurality of encodings from the device to a fragmenter; and fragmenting, by the fragmenter, the synchronized plurality of encodings. encoding, using a transcoder (110, 111), the common piece of content into a plurality of encodings, such that each encoding comprises the content in a different format, and such that each encoding comprises a set of independently specified portions, wherein each independently specified portion comprises a group of frames that is decodable without accessing a frame outside said independently specified portion, each independently specified portion beginning with an intra-coded frame that is decodable without using information from other frames, and wherein the encoding is performed such that the intra-coded frames of each encoding occur at a constant time interval for all encodings such that the independently specified portions are of constant time duration; receiving, at a device, the plurality of encodings; identifying, by the device, a time when a common location within the plurality of encodings was received for each encoding of the plurality of encodings, the common location corresponding to a program time value indicating when a frame appears in the common piece of content; based on the identified times, calculating, by the device an amount of delay for each encoding of the plurality of encodings such that delaying each encoding of the plurality of encodings by the calculated amount allows for the common location to be transmitted at a same time; delaying (603, by the device, each encoding of the plurality of encodings by its corresponding calculated amount of delay to result in a synchronized plurality of encodings in which the common location is synchronized; transmitting, by the device, the synchronized plurality of encodings from the device to a fragmenter; and fragmenting, by the fragmenter, the synchronized plurality of encodings.