Patent ID: RE43843

Claim:
A method of transmitting digital content to a plurality of separate users accessing Internet services at least in part via conventional two-way Internet protocol (IP) connection, said digital content comprising digital data and/or digital audio and/or digital video, the method comprising the steps of: a) formatting said digital content in accordance with an IP protocol to generate IP digital data; b) providing a streaming transmission of the IP digital data from a transmission site to a remote Internet point of presence of an Internet service provider (ISP) through one or more substantially one-way data flow bandwidth portions of a digital communications medium that is substantially unaffected by conventional two-way IP Internet communications traffic; c) multicastiag multicasting the IP digital data transmitted by step (b) from the remote Internet point of presence to a plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus connected to but distant from the remote Internet point of presence; and d) contemporaneously with step c), transmitting relatively time-insensitive additional IP digital data via a conventional two-way IP connection that is separate from the one-way data flow bandwidth portions to the remote Internet point of presence and then to the plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus; wherein, on each among the plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus, received IP digital data multicast by step (c) and received additional IP digital data transmitted by step (d) is processed to allow simultaneous use of both.