SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVE INSERTION OF CONTENT INTO STREAMING MEDIA

Method and system for server side insertion of rich content into a media stream uses an insertion plugin to redirect users' requests for streaming media through a server, and operates on either live broadcasts or on demand playlists. The live broadcast identifies impending local interrupt breaks and seamlessly inserts content chosen to match user attributes. The on demand implementation broadcasts a playlist of encoded content including predetermined file content and additional rich content inserted based on user attributes as selected by a decision engine. The insertion of content can be performed on already encoded media. In one embodiment, time matching is performed to avoid rebuffering.