CONDITIONAL ACCESS SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL TELEVISION CONTENT BASED ON PREPAYMENT METHODS AND OPTIMISATION OF THE BANDWIDTH OF THE CHANNEL BROADCASTING SAID CONTENT

摘要

The invention relates to a novel method of introducing a pay digital television mechanism whereby the content broadcaster or operator does not require a subscriber management infrastructure. According to the invention, the user is not committed to the operator but instead freely acquires content access time credit by means of an electronic transaction via a point of purchase on the Internet or a mobile phone message server. Moreover, the inventive system eliminates the need for customised validation and authentication information for each user to be sent permanently via the broadcast channel since said information is managed by means of a secure transfer mechanism when the credit is being purchased, with the time and content privileges acquired on the user platform being stored. The saving made in relation to the bandwidth is considerable when the number of users increases.