Online community based peer-to-peer media streaming systems and methods

A method comprising:

• scheduling, by a service providing system, a streaming of a media program during a timeslot;
• inviting, by the service providing system, members of a hosted online community to participate in the scheduled streaming of the media program;
• receiving, by the service providing system, acceptances from a group of the members of the online community;
• reserving, by the service providing system based on the received acceptances, access to the scheduled streaming of the media program by the group of the members;
• determining, by the service providing system based on the reserved access to the scheduled streaming of the media program by the group of the members and online community data associated with the group of the members, a peer-to-peer streaming configuration to be used for the scheduled streaming of the media program during the timeslot;
• and
• streaming, by the service providing system, the media program to the group of the members during the timeslot, wherein the streaming utilizes the peer-to-peer streaming configuration to stream the media program to at least a subset of members included in the group of the members.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a user device, an invitation to participate in a group peer-to-peer media streaming event during a scheduled timeslot;
• providing, by the user device, an acceptance of the invitation to a source of the invitation;
• receiving, by the user device during the scheduled timeslot, an incoming media stream as part of the group peer-to-peer media streaming event;
• processing, by the user device, the incoming media stream to present a media program for experiencing by a user of the user device;
• while receiving and processing the incoming media stream, streaming, by the user device, the media program to another user device as part of the group peer-to-peer media streaming event and in accordance with a peer-to-peer streaming configuration;
• and
• receiving, by the user device, information about an incentive provided to the user of the user device for participation in the group peer-to-peer media streaming event, wherein the incentive comprises discounted access to the media program for the participation in the group peer-to-peer media streaming event.

A system comprising:

• an online community hosting facility configured to host an online community of members and to maintain data associated with the hosted online community;
• a media delivery facility communicatively coupled to the online community hosting facility and configured to provide a peer-to-peer media streaming event to a group of the members of the online community based on the data associated with the online community;
• and
• an incentive management facility communicatively coupled to at least one of the online community hosting facility and the media delivery facility and configured to provide an incentive to the group of the members for participation in the peer-to-peer media streaming event.