The present invention is directed to playing an alternative pre-stored content in place of a particular type of content received by the player within a transport stream comprising a plurality of types of content. The invention can be useful in providing targeted advertising, where, when combined with profiling techniques, alternative content of interest to a viewer can be substituted in the transport stream in place of the received content. According to other embodiments of the present invention, computing resources and communication bandwidth use can be saved by playing pre-stored content instead of the received content. Embodiments of the present invention provide for the maintenance of the pre-stored material by storing appropriate content as it is received in the transport stream or by deleting pre-stored content when deemed appropriate to do so. An embodiment of the present invention may be deployed in a personal video player/recorder.