1. A method of providing a video program to a user, wherein the video program is repeatedly transmitted on one of a plurality of channels, each repeated transmission temporally separated from a previous transmission by a retransmission interval and being transmitted on a different channel than the previous transmission, the method comprising the steps of: receiving and storing a first segment of a selected video program in a local storage device before accepting a user command to view the selected video program, wherein a temporal length of the first segment is substantially equivalent to the retransmission interval; and after accepting the user command to view the selected video program, retrieving the stored first segment for presentation to the user while receiving and storing subsequent segments of the video program from at least one of the plurality of channels transmitting the video program.