Broadcast interactive digital radio

A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

• packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one data stream, each of said program segments comprising one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track;
• providing data which indicates access points for said program segments;
• and
• broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;
• wherein each decoder is adapted to:
• receive said packetized programming segments;
• temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;
• delete at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached;
• and
• allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks;
• such that:
• a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to skip over at least some of the commercial tracks, while another one of said service tiers does not allow a user to skip over the commercial tracks.

A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

• packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in a plurality of data streams, including a first channel of first program segments in a first data stream, and a second channel of second program segments in a second data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;
• providing data which indicates access points for said first and second program segments of said first and second channels;
• broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;
• wherein each decoder is adapted to:
• receive said packetized programming segments;
• temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;
• allow a user to skip from a currently playing first track on the first channel to a starting point of a second track in the second channel;
• and
• delete at least one track in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

• packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one data stream, each of said program segments comprising one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track;
• broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;
• communicating at least one of the non-commercial program segments as replacement programming in a replacement programming bandwidth of the at least one broadcast data stream, such that:
• a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to recover the non-commercial replacement program segments, while another one of said service tiers allows a user to recover the commercial tracks in lieu of recovering the non-commercial replacement program tracks;
• wherein each decoder is adapted to:
• receive said packetized programming segments;
• temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;
• delete at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

An apparatus for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising:

• a packetizer for packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one broadcast data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;
• means for providing data which designates access points for said program segments;
• and
• means for broadcasting said packetized program segments in at least one data stream at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;
• wherein each decoder is adapted to:
• receive said packetized programming segments;
• to store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;
• allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks;
• and
• delete one or more tracks in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

An apparatus for receiving broadcast digital programming services each service having a plurality of program segments, said apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving said plurality of packetized program segments which are transported in at least one broadcast data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;
• said packetized program segments being received at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;
• a buffer for storing at least a portion of the program segments;
• means for recovering data which designates access points for said program segments to allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks;
• and
• means for deleting at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

A digital radio receiver, comprising:

• a buffer for temporarily storing broadcast digital audio data comprising separate audio tracks which audio data is received via a communication path at a rate which is greater than a play rate thereof;
• and
• a buffer controller for outputting said audio data to audio processing circuitry at said play rate;
• wherein said buffer controller is actuable by a user input to provide at least one of a repeat, skip backward, and skip forward function for said separate audio tracks provided by said audio data.