In-band signaling to control encryption and transcoding resources in video on demand system

摘要

A method (30) for controlling flow of a video content signal through a communications system, such as a video on-demand system (10) creates (39) a unique message for each individual video content signal and attaches (41) the unique message to each individual video content signal prior to transmitting (41-47) the video content signal through the communications system (10) to a designed end user system (19). In one exemplary embodiment, the unique message comprises an in-band signaling message, such as a message inserted in a program map table in an MPEG packetized signal.