Patent ID: 8494516

Claim:
A method of providing access to a subscription service in a signal distribution system to a system user at a location remote from a home location of the user, the subscription service comprising a plurality of selectable channels available to the user at the home location, the remote location being serviced by head end equipment of the system, the method comprising the steps of: assigning to the user one of a plurality of program streams utilizable for delivery of content from the head end equipment to an interface device at the remote location; obtaining in the head end equipment content for a first channel of the subscription service available to the user at the home location; and inserting the content for the first channel into the assigned program stream to thereby make said content accessible to the user at the remote location via the interface device; wherein user selection via the interface device of a different channel of said subscription service available to the user at the home location causes the content for the different channel to be obtained by the head end equipment and inserted into the assigned program stream in place of the content for the first channel; wherein the program streams from which the assigned program stream is selected are part of a single communication channel between the head end equipment and the interface device at the remote location; wherein absent assignment of the assigned program stream the program streams that are part of the single communication channel are otherwise utilized to provide subscription service access to another system user having the remote location as its home location; wherein the content for the first channel replaces content which would otherwise be provided to the other system user in the assigned program stream; and wherein the single communication channel comprises dedicated unicast infrastructure for delivery of one or more unicast streams to the other system user having the remote location as its home location.