an implementation , as described herein , facilitates fast start - up of a new media stream while avoiding temporal interruption of the presentation of that new media stream . at least one implementation , described herein , coordinates the delivery of multiple simultaneous media streams on a media - stream network . its coordination accounts for traversal of bandwidth - restricted chokepoints ; quickly stopping delivery of one or more media streams from the set of streams ; quickly initiating delivery and presentation of one or more new media streams not previously in the set ; and producing clean playback of all of the streams in the set , despite their different timelines . this abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent . the scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims .