Systems and methods for determining portions of media assets for immediate retrieval by multiple devices

A system comprising:

• input/output circuitry configured to:
• receive a request from a first device for playing a media asset;
• control circuitry configured to:
• poll a plurality of co-located devices with the first device for play capability data;
• select one of the plurality of co-located devices as a primary device based on evaluating play capability data acquired via the polling, wherein the primary device is different from the first device from which the request was received;
• assign a respective portion of the media asset to a device of the plurality of co-located devices to cause each of the plurality of co-located devices to download the respective portion of the media asset;
• wherein the input/output circuitry is further configured to:
• cause each of the plurality of co-located devices to transfer the respective portion of the media asset to the primary device;
• and
• cause the primary device to play the media asset based on the transfer from each of the plurality of co-located devices.