Patent ID: 7756157

Claim:
A method of provisioning bandwidth for a digital media stream, the digital media stream characterized by a bandwidth, the method comprising: adapting by a media server a first portion of the bandwidth for transmission of the content of a first channel and at least one second, smaller portion of the bandwidth for transmission of the content of at least one second channel; transmitting, multiplexed together in the digital media stream, by the media server to a media display device, the content of the first channel and the content of the second channel, the content of the second channel transmitted with a lower quality than the content of the first channel; displaying by the media display device the content of the first channel; receiving by the media display device user alternate selections of both channels at a rate exceeding a predetermined threshold; and responsive to receiving user alternate selections of both channels at a rate exceeding a predetermined threshold, transmitting, by the media display device to the media server, a request to adapt an equal portion of the bandwidth for transmission of the content of each channel, and responsive to the request, adapting by the media server an equal portion of the bandwidth for transmission of the content of each channel.