Patent ID: 8127043

Claim:
A method for delivering content comprising: in a computer implemented processing system: determining a Priority value of the content; determining an Affinity value of the content, the Affinity value representing a job preference of a given transcoder; scheduling the content at a transcoder based on the Priority and Affinity values, wherein the Priority value is given by: Priority = V Content min ⁡ ( 1 , T Due - ( T Now + T Proc + T Transfer ) ) · 100 where 0<V Content ≦1, V Content represents a value associated with an owner of the content and adjusted based on a relative priority of the specific content source; T Due is a time the processed content is due at a destination; T Proc is a time required to process the content; T Transfer is a time required to transfer the content to and from a transcoding farm; and T Now is a current time.