Patent ID: 8185625

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting, from a server, media data in a first digital file that comprises one or more obligatory advertising portions and one or more content portions to a multimedia player, the server configured to receive a skip, fast-forward or similar type message from the multimedia player as an instruction to skip or fast-forward through all or a portion of the one or more obligatory advertising portions of the first digital file to expedite transmission of a content portion; and upon the server receiving a skip, fast-forward or similar type message, transmitting from the server a response message to the multimedia player indicating that it has successively received the message while continuing to transmit from the server to the multimedia player the one or more obligatory advertising portions without expediting transmission of the content portion; wherein the first digital file is assigned a streaming session, and the method further comprises the step of the server creating a second digital file based on the first digital file and the skip, fast-forward or similar type message and subsequent to receiving the message the server begins transmitting the media data as a part of the second digital file using the same streaming session as the first digital file.