ADAPTIVELY STREAMING MULTIMEDIA

A method (600) for adaptively streaming multimedia content over a network is disclosed the method comprises receiving, at a user terminal (120), a media stream from a media server (110), the stream comprising a plurality of media segments, each media segment having at least one media characteristic, monitoring (610) at least one parameter associated with the user terminal, storing (620) at least one historical parameter value associated with the at least one monitored parameter, predicting (640) a future value associated with the at least one monitored parameter based on the at least one historical parameter value and one or more of the monitored parameters, accessing the server (110) to determine the availability of a plurality of different segments associated with a media content stream wherein each segment is encoded with one of a plurality of different media characteristics and wherein a plurality of different segments, each encoded with a different media characteristic, are available for the same portion of the media content stream, an adaptive stream manager (336) selecting a target media characteristic from the available media characteristics of the available segments stored on the server based on the at least one monitored parameter associated with the user terminal and the predicted future value associated with the at least one monitored parameter, and sending, from the user terminal (120) to the media server (110), a request for a media segment being encoded with the target media characteristic.