1. A method of adaptively streaming multimedia content over a network, comprising: receiving, at a user terminal, a multimedia stream comprising a plurality of multimedia segments, each multimedia segment having at least one multimedia characteristic; monitoring at least one parameter of the user terminal; predicting a future value of the at least one monitored parameter of the user terminal based on at least one of historical parameter values and recent parameter data; selecting a target multimedia characteristic based on at least one of the at least one monitored parameter, wherein selecting a target multimedia characteristic comprises selecting a target bitrate based on the at least one of the at least one monitored parameter and the predicted future value of the at least one monitored parameter of the user terminal; and requesting a multimedia segment having the target multimedia characteristic.