MEDIA DATA STREAMING METHOD AND APPARATUS

The invention relates to the streaming of video data from both a server and a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, also known as a hybrid peer-to-peer network. It is intended for use in both live streaming and video on demand applications. It comprises establishing a connection to a streaming server and receiving video data from the streaming server. The video data comprises a portion of a video stream. Preferably the received video data is stored in a data store. Upon determining that the client meets a predefined criterion, the client provides information associated with the video stream to the tracking server and the tracking server provides information associated with a first user device to the client, wherein the first user device is receiving the same video stream as the client. The client then establishing a connection to the first user device, and receives video data from the first user device. Preferably the predefined criterion is that the quantity of video data in the data store exceeds a threshold. Preferably upload speed and proximity is considered when providing the first user device to the client.