Patent ID: 7086077

Claim:
In an video-on-demand (VOD) distribution system comprising provider equipment and subscriber equipment, said provider equipment providing VOD content to said subscriber equipment via a forward channel, said subscriber equipment requesting said information via a back channel, provider equipment apparatus comprising: a session manager, for receiving VOD content requests from said subscriber equipment and determining, for each received request, whether said VOD distribution system has sufficient bandwidth available to provide the requested VOD content; and an information server, coupled to said session manager, for providing said requested VOD content using stored content encoded in a manner adapted to utilize an appropriate bandwidth in the case of appropriate bandwidth availability, and for providing said requested VOD content using stored content encoded in a manner adapted to utilize a minimal bandwidth in the case of at least minimal bandwidth availability, wherein: said session manager, in response to a determination that less than a minimum bandwidth is available, waiting for a predetermined period of time and determining, for each received VOD content request not being fulfilled, whether said VOD distribution system has sufficient bandwidth available to provide the requested VOD content.