Patent ID: 8255555

Claim:
A reception apparatus for receiving a stream delivered by multicast through a network, the reception apparatus comprising: a communication processor that receives a stream of a first channel for viewing and receives streams of one or more additional channels as viewing candidates; a memory that stores the received first channel stream and the received additional channel streams; a reproduction processor that processes the stored first channel stream for viewing; and a channel processor that: upon receipt of an instruction to switch to a selected one of the additional channels, causes the reproduction processor to process the stored additional channel stream corresponding to the selected additional channel and causes the communication processor to receive the stream of the selected additional channel for viewing; prioritizes available channels by calculating an order of priority based on user preference information; determines whether there are sufficient resources available to add an available channel from the prioritized available channels as one of the one or more additional channels whose streams are viewing candidates; and selects a channel from the prioritized available channels as one of the additional channels in a descending order of priority.