Patent ID: 7096482

Claim:
A broadcasting apparatus that broadcasts a specific program to which a reproduction time period between a starting time and a finishing time is specified, the reproduction being performed by a receiving apparatus, the broadcasting apparatus comprising: an allotment unit operable to allot a broadcasting bandwidth for the reproduction time period to the specific program and allotting a part of the broadcasting bandwidth for a preceding time period immediately before the reproduction time period to the specific program and the other part of the broadcasting bandwidth to another program; a transmission unit operable in accordance with the result of allotment by the allotment unit, for (a) repeatedly transmitting program data of the other program while transmitting program data of the specific program in the preceding time period, and (b) repeatedly transmitting the program data of the specific program in the reproduction time period, wherein to allotment unit sets a starting time of the preceding time period as a first time and a time included in between the first time and the starting time of the reproduction time period as a second time, the allotment unit (a) allots a broadcasting bandwidth not broader than a predetermined broadcasting bandwidth to the specific program from the first time to the second time, and (b) allots a broadcasting bandwidth broader than the predetermined broadcasting to the specific program from the second time to the finishing time of the reproduction time period; and a cache instruction message unit operable to repeatedly transmitting a cache instruction message at a time interval that is not longer than a transmission period of the program data of the specific program before the starting time of the reproduction time period of the specific program, wherein the cache instruction message unit instructs the receiving apparatus to cache the received program data of the specific program.