Patent ID: 8694641

Claim:
An image delivery management server comprising: a delivery load amount acquiring portion that acquires a delivery load amount of an image that is delivered to a viewer's terminal connected via a network; and a delivery device determining portion that determines, based on the delivery load amount, a type or a quantity of a delivery device that performs image delivery to the viewer's terminal, wherein the delivery load amount acquiring portion includes a viewer's terminal information acquiring portion that acquires information relating to the viewer's terminal to which the image is delivered, wherein the delivery device determining portion determines the type or the quantity of the delivery device in accordance with the information relating to the viewer's terminal, wherein the information relating to the viewer's terminal includes at least a current or past number of viewers to which the image is delivered or a number of viewers who have reserved the image that is to be delivered, wherein the delivery load amount acquiring portion further includes a utilization bandwidth acquiring portion that acquires a utilization bandwidth of the network that is used by the image delivery, wherein the delivery device determining portion determines the type or the quantity of the delivery device based on a number of viewers and the utilization bandwidth, wherein the delivery device includes at least one of at least one delivery terminal that directly delivers the image to the viewer's terminal and a delivery server that delivers an image uploaded from the delivery terminal to the viewer's terminal, and wherein the delivery device determining portion determines the quantity of the delivery terminal that delivers the image to the viewer's terminal based on a predetermined threshold value relating to one of the number of viewers and the utilization bandwidth, and also determines whether only the delivery server delivers the image to the viewer's terminal.