US Patent 9705942 Progressive playback

Methods and apparatus provide for a progressive player to allow for a user to subscribe to media content. The media content can be organized according to a media orchestration descriptor (MOD). The MOD identifies each segment (i.e. media element, media asset) of the media content and indicates relationships among the segments to define a presentation of the segments during playback of the media content. Immediately, in response to subscribing to the media content, the progressive player initiates playback of the media content in conjunction with downloading the media content to a buffer. Playback of the media content is controlled with respect to the playback time of the amount of buffered media content, where the buffered media content comprises media content in the buffer that has been downloaded but not yet played back.