Patent ID: 8077715

Claim:
A content transmitting and receiving system comprising: a content transmitting apparatus having: an IP packetizing unit that packetizes content into an IP packet and adds an IP header to the IP packet; a communication-network transmitting unit that transmits the IP packet through a communication network; an encapsulating unit that encapsulates the IP packet into a transmission packet; and a broadcast-network transmitting unit that transmits the transmission packet through a broadcast network for digital broadcast, wherein the communication-network transmitting unit and the broadcast-network transmitting unit transmit a plurality of content items by IP multicast, and the IP packetizing unit adds information concerning a condition of a receiving side node for the content to the IP header, said information including a current position of a user on the receiving side, a recipient attribute, or a recipient preference; and a content receiving apparatus, including: a communication-network receiving unit that receives the IP packet from the communication network; a broadcast-network receiving unit that receives the transmission packet from the broadcast network; a decapsulation unit that decapsulates the transmission packet received by the broadcast-network receiving unit and extracts the IP packet; an extracting unit that extracts the information concerning the condition of the receiving side node for the content added to the IP header of the IP packet; and a preferred-recipient-information comparing unit that compares the information concerning the condition of the receiving side node for the content with a predetermined condition, outputs the content of the IP packet to the user when the information matches the predetermined condition, and discards the IP packet when the information does not match the predetermined condition.