Patent ID: 7143431

Claim:
In a method of transmitting continuous media programs over a number of channels to multiple consumers, wherein the continuous media program is divided into a set of different segments that may be repeatedly transmitted on separate channels whereby segments from each channel may be assembled into a program thread, the improvement comprising the steps of: (a) dividing the channels into a leading and trailing group; (b) within the leading group, creating a first and second mini-cluster, each mini-cluster initially configured to merge with a common trailing group segment, each mini-cluster holding segments forming a program thread with different final segments of the leading group; and (c) independently allocating at least the first mini-cluster of the leading group for transmission of the continuous media program in response to one or more program requests; and (d) determining a characteristic of the one or more program requests and depending on the characteristic of the one or more program requests, mapping the first and second mini-clusters into the common trailing group segment or mapping the first and second mini-clusters into different trailing group segments; whereby channel bandwidth may be more efficiently allocated.