High bandwidth transmission system and method having local insertion, delay play and demand play

A method of inserting local digital data content into a stream of digital data multicast to a plurality of separate users, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving digital data for multicasting at a remote Internet point of presence;
• b) multicasting the received digital data from the remote Internet point of presence for delivery to a plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus connected to but distal from the remote Internet point of presence;
• c) substituting local digital data originating from a local server at the remote Internet point of presence for at least a portion of the received digital data;
• and
• d) multicasting the substituted local digital data from the remote Internet point of presence to a plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus connected to but distal from the remote Internet point of presence.

A method of delaying digital data content multicast to a plurality of separate recipients, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving digital multicast data for multicasting at a remote Internet point of presence;
• b) storing the received multicast data at the remote Internet point of presence;
• and
• c) multicasting the digital data stored in step b) from the remote Internet point of presence after a predetermined delay for delivery to a plurality of separate receiving Internet user apparatus connected to but distal from the remote Internet point of presence.

A method of providing multicast digital data content to one or more separate recipients on demand, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving digital multicast data for multicasting at a remote Internet point of presence;
• b) storing the received multicast data at the remote Internet point of presence;
• and
• c) providing the digital data stored in step b) from the remote Internet point of presence to a recipient in response to a request command from the recipient to the remote Internet point of presence.