Abstract: For an interactive communication system, the invention provides a method and apparatus for processing requests for video presentations of particular interactive applications. One embodiment of the invention initially receives, from a viewing node, a request for a video presentation of a particular interactive application. This embodiment then provides a near-video-on-demand (NVOD) presentation of the interactive application to the viewing node. At the time of the offer of the NVOD presentation, or during the NVOD presentation, the viewing node might request a video-on-demand (VOD) version of the interactive application. If such a request is made, and if the system's resources would not be constrained by the transmission of the video-on-demand presentation of the interactive application, then this embodiment transmits the video-on-demand version of the interactive application to the viewing node.