Abstract: A method and system for booking and scheduling requests for broadcast of programs by a station in which a request has at least a program time duration and required minimum broadcast bandwidth and the station has a fixed bandwidth broadcast capability. A schedule is maintained of programs that have been booked for broadcast, each booked program having a date of broadcast, time for broadcast, time duration and broadcast bandwidth and the request is checked against the schedule of the booked programs for availability of the requested minimum bandwidth for the time duration of the request. The request also can contain a specified time and date for the broadcast. If the request can be satisfied a notice of acceptance is sent and if it cannot, advice is given of this and a listing of alternate times is provided at which the request can be satisfied.

Abstract: A distributed broadcast system for receiving, processing, scheduling and broadcasting a wide variety of media objects is disclosed. The system comprises: a media object tracking system, a channel editing segment, a broadcast facility, and a plurality of end-user PCs. The media object tracking system receives media objects from a plurality of distinct sources and tracks their distribution, modification, and use. Associated with the media-object tracking system are a plurality of editing stations, where received media objects may be processed to create broadcast-ready material. The channel editing segment preferably comprises a plurality of channel editing centers (CECs) and one or more channel management centers (CMCs) which aggregate broadcast-ready media objects and schedule them for broadcast. Each scheduled media object is encoded in accordance with subscription information associated with the service to which the media object belongs.

Abstract: A method and system for booking and scheduling requests for broadcast of programs by a station in which a request has at least a program time duration and required minimum broadcast bandwidth and the station has a fixed bandwidth broadcast capability. A schedule is maintained of programs that have been booked for broadcast, each booked program having a date of broadcast, time for broadcast, time duration and broadcast bandwidth and the request is checked against the schedule of the booked programs for availability of the requested minimum bandwidth for the time duration of the request. The request also can contain a specified time and date for the broadcast. If the request can be satisfied a notice of acceptance is sent and if it cannot, advice is given of this and a listing of alternate times is provided at which the request can be satisfied.

Abstract: A method and system for booking and scheduling requests for broadcast of programs by a station in which a request has at least a program time duration and required minimum broadcast bandwidth and the station has a fixed bandwidth broadcast capability. A schedule is maintained of programs that have been booked for broadcast, each booked program having a date of broadcast, time for broadcast, time duration and broadcast bandwidth and the request is checked against the schedule of the booked programs for availability of the requested minimum bandwidth for the time duration of the request. The request also can contain a specified time and date for the broadcast. If the request can be satisfied a notice of acceptance is sent and if it cannot, advice is given of this and a listing of alternate times is provided at which the request can be satisfied.