Patent ID: 8458751

Claim:
A method for communicating programming streams to a media transmit facility, the method comprising: receiving a first programming stream (PS) and a second PS at a first local receive facility (LRF), the first PS communicated from a first local program provider (LPP) to the first LRF, the second PS communicated from a second LPP to the first LRF, wherein the first LRF, the first LPP and the second LPP are in a first geographic region; receiving a third PS and a fourth PS at a second LRF, the third PS communicated from a third LPP to the second LRF, the fourth PS communicated from a fourth LPP to the second LRF, wherein the second LRF, the third LPP and the fourth LPP are in a second geographic region that is different from the first geographic region; packetizing, at the first LPP, the first PS into a first packetized programming stream (PPS) and the second PS into a second PPS; packetizing, at the second LPP, the third PS into a third PPS and the fourth PS into a fourth PPS; separately receiving at the media transmit facility, via a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) data system, the first PPS and the second PPS from the first LRF; separately receiving at the media transmit facility, via the MPLS data system, the third PPS and the fourth PPS from the second LRF; multiplexing the first PS, the second PS, the third PS, and the fourth PS into a transport channel; and communicating the transport channel from the media transmit facility.