A digital information system delivers virtual on-demand information over existing, as well as the next generation, digital transport systems by offloading a portion of the systems' peak bandwidth requirements to the local subscribers. A collaborative filtering system synthesizes the preferences of all of the subscribers and then predicts those items that each subscriber might like, and therefore request. Each subscriber is provided with a local storage device for storing, during off-peak hours, those items recommended by the collaborative filtering system. As a result, only a relatively few subscriber requests must be serviced directly from the central distribution system.