Patent ID: 7983344

Claim:
A method of allocating bandwidth within a bandwidth-constrained interactive information distribution system, comprising: (a) determining by a computing device, the computing device comprising a processor and an associated memory, within the information distribution system, for at least one received data request, an available bandwidth of an information distribution system adapted to deliver the requested data, the requested data being encoded to utilize either an appropriate bandwidth or a minimum bandwidth; (b) in the case of sufficient bandwidth being available to support appropriate bandwidth encoded data, providing, by the computing device, the appropriate bandwidth encoded data to the information distribution system; (c) in the case of sufficient bandwidth being available to support only minimum bandwidth encoded data, providing, b the computing device, the minimum bandwidth encoded data to the information distribution system; and (d) in the case of sufficient bandwidth not being available to support minimum bandwidth encoded data, denying, by the computing device, access to the requested data and providing only an access denial message to the information distribution system, wherein the access denial message is provided instead of providing severely degraded program data in the absence of a minimal amount of bandwidth for providing the minimum bandwidth encoded data.