Patent ID: 8150992

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a request from a first client device for a media asset from a media content provider (MCP), wherein the MCP is capable of providing multiple versions of the media asset, wherein each of the versions of the media asset is associated with a different playback rate as measured in bits per second; receiving a request from a second client device for the media asset from the MCP; calculating a desired overall bandwidth utilization by: determining a number of bits transmitted by the MCP over a network link during a time interval; calculating an overall bandwidth utilization of the network link by the MCP during the time interval; sampling the calculated overall bandwidth utilization in increments of the time interval; determining a first number of samples, wherein the first number of samples is a number of samples where the calculated overall bandwidth utilization is greater than a previous overall bandwidth utilization during a billing period; determining a second number of samples, wherein the second number of samples is a number of samples needed to define a percentile of the overall bandwidth utilization that a service provider uses to charge the MCP for the billing period; determining a highest overall bandwidth utilization within the first number of samples; and setting the desired overall bandwidth utilization, as a data transfer policy, to the highest overall bandwidth utilization within the first number of samples, when the first number of samples is greater than or equal to the second number of samples; selecting, with a delivery information server, in response to the request from the first client device, one of the multiple versions of the media asset for the first client device; selecting, with the delivery information server, in response to the request from the second client device, one of the multiple versions of the media asset for the second client device such that a bandwidth utilization by the MCP when transferring the selected versions of the media asset to the first and second client devices over the network link is substantially equal to the desired overall bandwidth utilization for the billing period as indicated by the data transfer policy; and causing, with the delivery information server, the MCP to transfer the selected versions of the media asset over the network link to the first and second client devices.