US Patent 10939148 Playback synchronization among adaptive bitrate streaming clients

In one embodiment, a method provides a manifest for a media program to a client. The manifest includes a set of bitrate representation links that correspond to a set of bitrates. A pointer is maintained to at least a portion of a current segment that is currently being presented in the media program. A request is received using a bitrate representation link in the set of bitrate representation links. The method then selects at least the portion of the current segment using the pointer for the bitrate that corresponds to the bitrate representation and sends the at least the portion of the current segment to the client.