A content transfer system includes a provider device 40 and a receptor device, such as a personal digital assistant 20. The receptor device 20 is arranged to monitor the activity or usage of the device, and determine or predict therefrom a period of low device activity. In such a low period of activity, content transfer control means, in the form of a controller 21, is arranged to initiate the transfer of an item of content from the provider device 40 to the receptor device 20. The content may be secondary content such as text information from a television signal. Compression, decompression or other processor intensive tasks, such as preparing the content according to the output capabilities, may also be performed during times of low device activity.