Serving Media Articles with Altered Playback Speed

A method of altering apparent media playback speed on a server, comprising:

• receiving at a server a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed, wherein the content comprises a frame selected from a group consisting of a video stream, an audio stream, a text stream, and a metadata stream and the request comprises at least one content identifier and instructions corresponding to the at least one content identifier, the instructions further comprising a content transformation instruction;
• altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed, wherein altering the number of frames of the media content further comprises calculating alterations to the number of frames of the requested media content to conform to the altered playback speed to produce the altered media content;
• serving at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client, wherein the portion of the altered media content is capable of being served prior to the remainder of the altered media content being available for serving;
• and
• storing a reading rate for a client host domain.

A computer program product for altering apparent media playback speed on a server, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable medium;
• and
• computer program code, coded on the medium, for:
• receiving at a server a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed;
• altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed;
• and
• serving at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client.

The system for altering apparent media playback speed on a server, the system comprising:

• means for receiving at a server a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed;
• means for altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed;
• and
• means for serving at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client.