ports to which the set top box or other devices are connected with the address of a tv channel at step 46 the ont determines whether the requested tv channel is already available to it as the ont may already be providing that tv channel to other subscriber ports e g another person in the same house may already be watching that tv channel on another device if the ont is already providing the requested tv channel to another user port then at step 48 the ont provides the tv channel locally to the subscriber if the ont is not already providing the requested tv channel to another user port then at step 50 the ont forwards the request for the tv channel to the olt 10 at step 52 the olt consults the table of fig6 and selects an available virtual channel at step 54 the olt associates the selected virtual channel with the requested virtual channel by updating the table of fig6 to associate the address of the requested tv channel with the selected virtual channel at step 56 the olt 10 transmits a physical layer operation administration and maintenance ploam message to the requesting ont to set up the selected.