DIGITAL CONTENTS DISTRIBUTION NETWORK, DIGITAL CONTENTS DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS, DIGITAL CONTENTS RECEIVING DEVICE, AND ITS DISTRIBUTION METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital contents distribution apparatus that can efficiently distribute digital contents of a broadcast program with a small load on the distribution. SOLUTION: The digital contents distribution apparatus 1 assigns an IP multicast address to digital contents of each program so as to assemble the digital contents into Ethernet (R) frames and uses a hardware multicast address to transmit (broadcast) the frames to an IP multicast compatible selection/ transfer unit 2 without the need for designating a digital contents receiver 3 being a distribution destination. The IP multicast compatible selection/transfer unit 2 selects the Ethernet frames to which the IP multicast address is assigned among the broadcast Ethernet frames and transfers the selected frames to the digital contents receiver 3 when receiving a reception request to designate the IP multicast address from the digital contents receiver 3.