Patent ID: 8533771

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: determining that a substantial portion of set-top terminals connected to a video content network require a software upgrade; allocating in-band video bandwidth for said software upgrade; broadcasting said software upgrade to said set-top terminals from a carousel in a first remote node of said video content network, via said allocated in-band video bandwidth, until a predetermined number of said set-top terminals have received said software upgrade; and subsequent to said predetermined number of said set-top terminals receiving said software upgrade, de-allocating said in-band video bandwidth and making said software upgrade available out-of-band, to a remaining portion of said set-top terminals, via individual sessions with an application server in a second remote node of said video content network, wherein said application server has a threshold capacity of a certain number of downloads of said software upgrade per unit time, further comprising monitoring, during said broadcasting step, a number of said set-top terminals downloading said software upgrade from said carousel per unit time, wherein said predetermined number corresponds to a number of said set-top terminals which have received said software upgrade from said carousel at a point in time when said number of said set-top terminals downloading said software upgrade from said carousel per unit time is no greater than said threshold capacity.