Patent ID: 8555312

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a system comprising a processor, viewer input associated with a first multimedia receiver coupled to a first access network of a service provider via a first residential gateway, the viewer input indicating a request from the first multimedia receiver to share a first multimedia channel with a second multimedia receiver at a remote premise from the first multimedia receiver through a second residential gateway separate from the first residential gateway and coupled to the second multimedia receiver; determining, by the system, whether sharing of the first multimedia channel with the second multimedia receiver is enabled; determining, by the system, whether the second multimedia receiver is coupled to a second access network of the service provider associated with the second multimedia receiver via the second residential gateway; establishing, by the system, a multimedia communications session between the service provider and the second multimedia receiver across a network boundary separating the first access network from the second access network according to the coupling to the second access network, the multimedia communications session with the service provider is further established via a digital subscriber line access multiplexer cooperatively coupled to the second residential gateway; determining, by the system, whether the second multimedia receiver accepts an offer of the first multimedia channel according to the enabling of sharing of the first multimedia channel; and transmitting, by the system, multimedia data representative of the first multimedia channel from the first access network to the second access network for receipt by the second multimedia receiver according to the acceptance of the offer.