The present invention relates to a system and method that delivers content from one or more content sources to a plurality of subscriber units via a flow transport subsystem that transports content flows originated from the one or more content sources over a wide area network in response to one or more requests for deadline-driven content flows. E.g., live or interactive flows. One or more gateways interface with the flow transport subsystem for receiving the deadline-driven content flows. Each of the one or more gateways is associated with one or more subscriber units and is selected based on one or more requests for deadline-driven content flows. A content processor converts the deadline-driven content flows to modulated content flows, and a flow delivery subsystem delivers the modulated content flows to one or more subscriber units associated with a selected gateway over an allocated frequency bandwidth of one or more transmission mediums. The flow delivery subsystem delivers the modulated content flows only to those one or more subscriber units that generate one or more content requests which initiate the one or more requests for deadline-driven content flows.