A communication apparatus comprising: a plurality of tuners configured to receive a plurality of digital broadcast channels, carry out tuning, and perform digital demodulation processing; and a plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) configured to encode the plurality of digital broadcast channels while switching a rate of output data in at least two stages; and a wireless communication apparatus that transfers output of the plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) to a plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) by way of a wireless LAN ; and a control unit configured to receive a request from a first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) when one of the plurality of digital broadcast channels is selected at the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), and to switch, based on the request from the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), an output of the responsible streaming unit (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) from a low-rate stream to a high-rate stream such that the high-rate stream is transmitted to the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) at which the digital broadcast channel has been selected, wherein the control unit , upon initialization of one terminal (22 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), is configured to request a processing start to each of the plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) and each of the one or more streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) is configured to perform low-rate streaming start processing for all of the plurality of the digital broadcast channels, wherein streaming start processing comprises tuning, transcoding and forward error correction and streams all of the plurality of the digital broadcast channels in a low-rate stream to the plurality of terminals . a plurality of tuners configured to receive a plurality of digital broadcast channels, carry out tuning, and perform digital demodulation processing; and a plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) configured to encode the plurality of digital broadcast channels while switching a rate of output data in at least two stages; and a wireless communication apparatus that transfers output of the plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) to a plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) by way of a wireless LAN ; and a control unit configured to receive a request from a first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) when one of the plurality of digital broadcast channels is selected at the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), and to switch, based on the request from the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), an output of the responsible streaming unit (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) from a low-rate stream to a high-rate stream such that the high-rate stream is transmitted to the first terminal of the plurality of terminals (2 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ) at which the digital broadcast channel has been selected, wherein the control unit , upon initialization of one terminal (22 1 , 2 2 , 2 m ), is configured to request a processing start to each of the plurality of streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) and each of the one or more streaming units (11 1 , 11 2 , 11 3 , 11 n ) is configured to perform low-rate streaming start processing for all of the plurality of the digital broadcast channels, wherein streaming start processing comprises tuning, transcoding and forward error correction and streams all of the plurality of the digital broadcast channels in a low-rate stream to the plurality of terminals . <EOS>