System and method for streaming media

A media streaming system comprising a combination of hardware and software, the software executable by the hardware to cause the media streaming system to:

• receive from each of a plurality of media owners media for streaming and one or more media rules governing transmission of the received media, wherein the one or more media rules are used by the media streaming system to determine a streaming sequence for the transmission of the received media and determine one or more streaming resources to which the received media is to be distributed;
• distribute the received media to the one or more determined streaming resources;
• receive, from a viewer device via a communication network, a request for at least one portion of the received media to be streamed to the viewer device;
• generate, based at least in part on the one or more media rules, one or more references to the requested at least one portion of the received media and information for causing the requested at least one portion of the received media to be streamed by the one or more streaming resources to the viewer device in accordance with the one or more media rules;
• and
• transmit the one or more references and the information to the at least one viewer device so that the viewer device may cause the requested at least one portion of the received media to be streamed by the one or more streaming resources to the viewer device in accordance with the one or more media rules.

A streaming system comprising at least one computing device comprising a combination of hardware and software, the software executable by the hardware to cause the streaming system to:

• receive, from each of a plurality of media owners, media for a plurality of events for streaming and one or more media rules governing transmission of the received media, wherein the one or more media rules are used by the streaming system to determine a streaming sequence for the transmission of the received media and determine one or more streaming resources to which the received media is to be distributed;
• receive, from a communication device via a communication network, a request for media for one of the plurality of events to be streamed to the communication device, the media for the requested event comprising a plurality of segments and the requested event being selected by a user of the communication device from a plurality of event options;
• and
• transmit to the communication device (i) one or more references to one or more segments of the media for the requested event and (ii) information, the information being based at least in part on the one or more media rules, for use by the communication device identifying how to communicate with the one or more determined resources to cause the one or more segments of the media for the requested event to be streamed to the communication device in accordance with the one or more media rules.

A method performed by at least one computing device of a streaming system, the method comprising:

• receiving, from each of a plurality of media owners, media for a plurality of events for streaming and one or more media rules governing transmission of the received media, wherein the one or more media rules are used by the streaming system to determine a streaming sequence for the transmission of the received media and determine one or more streaming resources to which the received media is to be distributed;
• receiving, from a communication device via a communication network, a request for media for one of the plurality of events to be streamed to the communication device, the media for the requested event comprising a plurality of segments and the requested event being selected by a user of the communication device from a plurality of event options;
• and
• transmitting to the communication device (i) one or more references to one or more of the segments of the media for the requested event and (ii) information, the information being based at least in part on the one or more media rules, for use by the communication device identifying how to communicate with the one or more determined resources to cause the one or more segments of the media for the requested event to be streamed to the communication device in accordance with the one or more media rules.