APPARATUS, AND ASSOCIATED METHOD, FOR PROVIDING MEDIA IN A RADIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
An apparatus, and an associated method, facilitates the sending and play out of popular media, such as viral videos, in a radio communication system. Portions of popular media are broadcast and stored at communication devices. When a user of a communication device elects to play out popular media, the broadcast portion, stored at a communication device, is retrieved and played out. If an additional portion of the media is to be played out, the additional portion is retrieved and downloaded to the communication device.
1 . An apparatus for a wireless device having media-broadcast reception functionality, said apparatus comprising:
a selection detector configured to detect selection to play out selected media;
a media retriever adapted to receive indication of selection detected by said selection detector, said media retriever configured to retrieve a locally-cached portion of the selected media and configured to initiate retrieval of a remotely-located additional portion of the selected media.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said selection detector is configured to detect selection to access a network location associated with a selected uniform resource locator.
3 . The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said media retriever is configured to retrieve a locally-cached portion of selected media associated with the selected uniform resource locator.
4 . The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said media retriever is configured to initiate retrieval of a remotely-located additional portion of the selected media by initiating access to the selected uniform resource locator.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a memory cache configured to store mobile-broadcast media.
6 . The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the mobile-broadcast media comprises the locally-cached portion of the selected media, the locally-cached portion of the selected media forming less than an entirety of the selected media.
7 . The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the mobile-broadcast media comprises mobile-TV media.
8 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said media retriever is configured to initiate packet-channel retrieval of a remotely-located additional portion of the selected media.
9 . A method for facilitating broadcast of selected media in a wireless communication system, said method comprising:
broadcasting at least a first portion of the selected media together with an indication of a network location at which the media is accessible;
providing at least a second portion of the selected media for access by way of the network location indicated by the indication broadcast together with the first portion of the selected media.
10 . The method of claim 9 further comprising selecting the selected media.
11 . The method of claim 10 wherein said selecting comprises selecting media identified to be popular according to a popularity indicia.
12 . The method of claim 9 wherein said broadcasting comprises broadcasting less than an entirety of the selected media.
13 . The method of claim 12 further comprising identifying a location of the selected media at which the first portion of the selected media terminates.
14 . The method of claim 13 wherein the second portion of the selected media commences at the location at which the first portion of the selected media terminates.
15 . The method of claim 12 further comprising detecting a request for the second portion of the selected media and wherein said providing further comprising sending the second portion of the selected media by a packet-switched communication connection.
16 . A method for facilitating play out of media at a wireless device having media-broadcast reception functionality, said method comprising:
detecting selection to play out selected media;
retrieving a locally-cached portion of the selected media; and
initiating retrieval of a remotely-located additional portion of the selected media if play out of the selected media is to continue beyond play out of the locally-cached portion.
17 . The method of claim 16 wherein said detecting comprises detecting selection to access a selected uniform resource locator.
18 . The method of claim 16 wherein the locally-cached portion of the selected media comprises broadcast-delivered media.
19 . The method of claim 16 wherein said initiating retrieval of the remotely-located additional portion by way of a packet-switched connection.
20 . An apparatus for facilitating broadcast of selected media in a wireless communication system, said apparatus comprising:
a media portion definer configured to define a first portion of the selected media; and
a broadcast initiator configured to initiate broadcast of a first portion, defined by said media portion definer, of the selected media, together with an indication of a network location at which the selected media is accessible.