Channel dancer

A method for gathering data about a subscriber over the Internet using incentives comprising:

• offering an incentive in exchange for receiving data about a subscriber;
• receiving acceptance of the offer;
• and
• providing the offered incentive, wherein the incentive may be used to purchase content.

A method for delivering personalized broadband content comprising:

• receiving a request for a portion of multicast data in IP protocol;
• receiving multicast data in an IP protocol;
• locating the requested portion of multicast data;
• and
• sending the requested portion of multicast data to a user machine connected to an ISP.

A method for advertising with rich media type content comprising:

• sending an advertisement linked to rich media content to a user machine;
• displaying the advertisement with the rich media content at the user machine;
• storing the advertisement in a memory device;
• and
• recalling the advertisement for display with other rich media content.

A method of delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

• receiving content at a network operations center;
• associating promotional material with the content;
• scheduling the content on virtual channels, wherein the virtual channels are a Multicast IP stream;
• broadcasting the virtual channels over a transmission medium;
• receiving the virtual channels at a broadband ISP;
• routing requested virtual channels to a user machine;
• and
• displaying the content in the requested virtual channels on the user machine.

A method of delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

• receiving a plurality of virtual channels at a user machine, wherein each virtual channel comprises content;
• filtering the plurality of virtual channels based on a user's personal profile;
• displaying the filtered virtual channels in a GUI, wherein a virtual channel may be selected;
• and,
• if a virtual channel is selected, displaying or storing content from the virtual channel.

A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for delivering personalized broadband content, by:

• receiving a plurality of virtual channels at a user machine, wherein each virtual channel comprises content;
• filtering the plurality of virtual channels based on a user's personal profile;
• displaying the filtered virtual channels in a GUI, wherein a virtual channel may be selected;
• and,
• if a virtual channel is selected, displaying or storing content from the virtual channel.

A system for delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

• a network operations center (“NOC”), comprising one or more servers, that receives content and promotional material and schedules the content for broadcast on virtual channels;
• a transmission medium, operatively connected to the NOC, that transmits the virtual channels;
• a point-of-presence (“POP”) client server that receives at least a subset of the virtual channels;
• and
• a user machine, connected via a network to the POP client server, comprising client software that issues requests for virtual channels and processes the virtual channels to display the content and promotional materials on the user machine, wherein the POP client server routs virtual channels to the user machine based on the requests issued by the client software.