Patent ID: 8631453

Claim:
A method of displaying a branched chain of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) video content, comprising: receiving, at an IPTV compatible player device, a first stream of video content, the first stream of video content comprising a plurality of video images that each appear during at least one of a plurality of associated time intervals in the first stream of video content; accessing a collection of affiliate video streams that are each related to at least one of the plurality of video images that each appear during the at least one of the plurality of associated time intervals; accessing a set of metadata that associates the time intervals with one of the collection of affiliate video streams, where the metadata facilitates navigation to affiliated video streams that are related to the video image that appears during the associated time interval; playing the first stream of video content on the IPTV compatible player device to sequentially reveal at least a portion of the plurality of video images of the first stream in their respective time relationships in the first stream via a display driven by the IPTV compatible player device; at the IPTV compatible player device, receiving a selection signal during the associated time interval that selects the video image being displayed; in response to receipt of the selection signal at the IPTV compatible player device, the IPTV compatible player device: identifying, using the metadata, a particular one of the collection of affiliate video streams that is related to the video image that appears during the associated time interval of the selected video image; navigating to the identified particular one of the collection of affiliate video Streams; and ceasing to play the first stream of video content and beginning playing the associated one of the collection of affiliate video streams that is related to the video image that appears during the time interval of the selected image; wherein, a viewer directly navigates between the first stream of video content and the collection of affiliate video streams.