Patent ID: 8555318

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining, by one or more server devices and based upon prior selections of multimedia content by a user associated with a client device, one or more topics of interest to the user; forming, by the one or more server devices, a plurality of profiles that are associated with a respective plurality of custom media channels, each profile of the plurality of profiles including: users preferences, the user preferences including an indication of the one or more topics of interest to the user, and channel policy control information for a corresponding custom media channel of the respective plurality of custom media channels, the channel policy control information being related to retrieval and playback of the corresponding custom media channel, the channel policy control information including playback modes that include an interactive playback mode and a continuous play playback mode; creating, by the one or more server devices, a custom media channel, of the plurality of custom media channels, based on a profile of the plurality of profiles, the creating, by the one or more server devices, the custom media channel based on the profile including: comparing each of a plurality of stored multimedia content to the profile, identifying conforming multimedia content, of the plurality of stored multimedia content, that conforms with the one or more topics of interest to the user and with the channel policy control information, determining respective storage locations associated with the conforming multimedia content, one or more conforming multimedia content, of the conforming multimedia content, being stored at the client device, and other conforming multimedia content, of the conforming multimedia content, being stored externally of the client device, sorting the conforming multimedia content based on the user preferences and the channel control policy information associated with the custom channel, providing, to the client device, a playback list identifying the sorted conforming multimedia content and the respective storage locations, the playback list enabling the client device to provide the sorted conforming multimedia content in an order associated with the sorted conforming multimedia content, providing, to the client device, the other conforming multimedia content before the client device receives a request, from the user, for the custom media channel, and updating the playback list based on providing the other conforming multimedia content; receiving, by the one or more server devices and from the client device, an indication that the user, when viewing the custom media channel requested another custom media channel; and updating, based on receiving the indication, the profile.