Patent ID: 8844000

Claim:
A method that communicates a plurality of media content streams with content to a program content generation system operated by a client device, wherein each one of the plurality of media content streams are generated by one of a plurality of local programming provider (LPPs) residing in one of a plurality of domestic market areas (DMAs), and wherein of each one of the media content streams comprises a plurality of packets containing portions of the content, and wherein each packet includes a header with an identifier of the LLP that produced the media content stream, the method comprising: receiving, from a first plurality of LLPs, a first plurality of media content streams at a first content stream aggregation facility in a first DMA; multiplexing, at the first content stream aggregation facility, the received plurality of packets of each of the first plurality of media content streams into a first multi-media content stream; communicating the first multi-media content stream from the first content stream aggregation facility onto a communication network; receiving, from a second plurality of LLPs, a second plurality of media content streams at a second content stream aggregation facility in a second DMA, wherein the second DMA is different from the first DMA; multiplexing, at the second content stream aggregation facility, the plurality of packets of each of the second plurality of media content streams into a second multi-media content stream; communicating the second multi-media content stream from the second content stream aggregation facility onto the communication network; receiving, at a media content stream receive system, the first multi-media content stream and the second multi-media content stream via the communication network; identifying one of the media content streams in the received first multi-media content stream and the second multi-media content stream as an authorized media content stream that is of interest to the client, wherein the authorized media content stream is identified by the identifier that identifies the LLP that produced the authorized media content stream; unbundling the plurality of packets associated with the authorized media content stream from the received one of the first multi-media content stream and the second multi-media content stream based on the identifier of the LLP that produced the authorized media content stream; generating the authorized media content stream from the plurality of packets; and communicating the authorized media content stream to the program content generation system operated by the client.