Patent ID: 7810122

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a plurality of requests for a particular content item at an application server from a plurality of customer premise devices, wherein each request of the plurality of requests is received via a broadband wireline link from one of the plurality of customer premise devices, and wherein each of the plurality of customer premise devices is capable of receiving the particular content item via the broadband wireline link; determining a number of the customer premise devices capable of receiving the particular content item via a satellite link; when the determined number is greater than a preset number, transferring the particular content item from the application server to a satellite content management server to be distributed over a channel and a time slot allocated by the satellite content management server to the customer premise devices capable of receiving the particular content item via the satellite link; and when the determined number is not greater than the preset number, distributing the particular content item via the broadband wireline link from the application server to the customer premise devices capable of receiving the particular content item via the satellite link.