Patent ID: 7222354

Claim:
A method for displaying program content on a viewer information processing system with an interface to a display, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a play-list and program content from a program provider, wherein the play-list is a list of instructions for the rendering of one or more multimedia segments into a multimedia presentation; wherein the play-list is based on a user's demographics assembled by the program provider; wherein the play-list contains pointers to indicate where each of the one or more multimedia segments selected from a group of primary media sources is located; wherein the play-list contains a multimedia segment availability time when each of the one or more multimedia segments in the play-list is to be received prior to the time the multimedia segment is to be rendered; receiving, from the program provider, at least one of the one or more multimedia segments required by the play-list; determining if all the one or more multimedia segments required by the play-list have been received according to the multimedia segment availability time and in response to at least one of the one or more multimedia segments not being so received, then requesting one or more missing multimedia segments from a secondary media source different than the primary media source from which the one or more multimedia segments were previously requested but not received, wherein the secondary media source is selected from the group of secondary media sources consisting of a second broadcast channel, internet, and removable computer readable medium; and displaying the multimedia presentation on the display by rendering the one or more multimedia segments as directed by the play-list.