A radio line is easily influenced in its nature by attenuation or
reflection of an electromagnetic wave or the like and the surrounding
environment. Due to this fact, a variation of the data transfer speed
frequently occurs at the time of image streaming so as to become a
hindrance to reproduction of an image at the receiving terminal. A
distribution server is provided with a multiplexer for multiplexing
information indicating the transmission start time for the image data and
a switching unit for switching an image bit rate in response to a request
from the receiving terminal. The receiving terminal uses information
indicating a transmission start time for the image data, monitors the
receiving bit rate and sends out a request for transmission of the
most-suitable image bit rate in response to a comparison thereof.