Patent ID: 8893200

Claim:
A method of acquiring virtual channel details information for an Internet protocol TV (IPTV) service, the method comprising: connecting a service provider through a network; receiving a virtual channel map containing a resource locator element representing location of virtual channel details information, wherein the resource locator element includes selectively one of a first child element for including inline encoded virtual channel details information, a second child element for including uniform resource locator (URL) information for retrieving the File via the hypertext transfer protocol, and a third child element for including FLUTE file information for retrieving the File via FLUTE protocol, wherein the resource locator element is permitted to include the first child element, the resource locator element is permitted to include the second child element, and the resource locator element is permitted to include the third child element; parsing the received virtual channel map to read one of the first child element, the second child element, and the third child element; checking which child element is read among the first child element, the second child element, and the third child element; retrieving the inline encoded virtual channel details information from the virtual channel map, if the first child element is read; retrieving the virtual channel details information via the HTTP according to information of the second child element, if the second child element is read; and retrieving the virtual channel details information via the FLUTE protocol according to information of the third child element, if the third child element is read.