Patent ID: 6978306

Claim:
A communications system for transporting multiple individual video streams from a centralized location to multiple end user devices, the system comprising: a network that transmits the multiple individual video streams from a centralized location to a local center located nearer than the centralized location to the multiple end user devices; a video cache at the local center capable of receiving the multiple individual video streams from the centralized location; multiple customer premises devices capable of receiving the multiple individual video streams from the video cache; and a stream manager that controls the multiple individual video streams from the centralized location to the local center, wherein the stream manager is configured to control bandwidth prioritization between the centralized location and the local center, and wherein the bandwidth prioritization is controlled by the stream manager such that as an individual video stream reaches a low fill level in the video cache at the local center, that individual video stream is assigned a higher bandwidth priority when compared to other individual video streams that have fuller fill levels.