Abstract: A streaming content-on-demand service provider (400), upon receiving (301) from a remotely located content consumer (100) an on-demand request (406) for present delivery of a particular identified item of streaming content, allocates (303) a multicast address/port to which a multicast stream (411) comprising the streaming content will be provided. The content consumer (via, for example, a corresponding client platform) can then use this multicast address/port to receive the particular identified item of streaming content. Such an approach will serve to permit the initiation of a new stream of content to serve an initial request for such content. This approach will also permit, if desired, late joiners to begin receiving, mid-stream, content that has already begun streaming in response to an earlier client request for such content.

Abstract: A method (30) and device (10) for accessing multimedia content. The method includes one or more end user multimedia devices receiving multimedia content, which may or may not include one or more dynamic bookmarks associated with particular portions of the multimedia content, e.g., portions of the multimedia content that have not been viewed or otherwise consumed by end user access devices. The method includes determining whether the received multimedia content includes an associated bookmark and providing access to the portion of the multimedia content identified by the bookmark. The method also includes generating new bookmarks or updating existing bookmarks based on end user consumption of the multimedia content by current or previous multimedia devices. The method also includes transferring multimedia content bookmarks alone or with associated multimedia content among multiple access devices, e.g., in various locations and in a number of suitable formats.