Patent ID: 7962572

Claim:
A system for providing an on-demand, personalized media service and a broadcast service to a client system, comprising: a distribution network; and a distribution center including: (1) a signal receiver system that receives a broadcast signal transmitted from a broadcast media source, said broadcast signal including plurality of broadcast media channels, (2) an on-demand system, and (3) a transmission system that takes output from the on-demand system and output from the signal receiver system and transmits the outputs to the client system via the distribution network, wherein the output from the signal receiving system includes the plurality of broadcast media channels, the client system is operable to: (1) isolate at least one of the broadcast media channels, (2) provide audio data included in the isolated channel to an audio system that reproduces the audio for a user of the client system to hear, (3) provide video and/or graphical data included in the isolated channel to a video system that displays the video and/or graphical data on a display device for the user to see, (4) display a user selectable element on the display device so that the first user selectable element is displayed on the display device together with the video and/or graphical data obtained from the isolated channel, and (5) in response to the user of the client system selecting the selectable element, transmit a message to the on-demand system to initiate an on-demand session, wherein the message comprises meta information associated with the user selectable element, and the on-demand system is configured such that, in response to receiving a message transmitted from the client system where the message comprises meta information associated with the user selectable element, the on-demand system (a) uses the meta information to select an asset, (b) establishes an on-demand session with the client system and (c) transmits the selected asset to the client system as part of the on-demand session.