A method of puncturing parity bits in a Low-Density Parity-Check, LDPC, codeword obtained by encoding using a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code in a transmitter including a puncturing pattern applier, said LDPC code being associated with a parity check matrix having a structure as defined in the DVB-S2 Standard which has a length of N 1, an information part with an information length K 1, and a parity part with a parity length of ( N 1 -K 1), said LDPC codeword having a length equal to N 1, an information length equal to K 1, and a parity length equal to ( N 1 -K 1), said information part of said parity-check matrix having a structure defined by: R i, j k = R i, j − 1 k + q mod N 1 − K 1, k = 1, 2,..., D i, i = 1,..., K 1 / M 1, j = 1,..., M 1 − 1 where: i = index indicating i th column group; j = index indicating j th column in a column group; q = (N 1 -K 1) / M 1; M 1 = number of columns per column group; D i = a degree, i.e. number of non-zero entries, of a 0 th column in each i th column group; R i, 0 1, R i, 0 2,..., R i, 0 D i = positions of rows with a value of 1 in a 0 th column in each i th column group; and R i, j k k = 1, 2,..., D i = positions of rows with a value of 1 in a j th column in an i th column group, N 1 =16200, K 1 =3240, M 1 =360, q =36 the method being characterized by comprising: determining, by the puncturing pattern applier, a number of parity bits Np for puncturing where 0< N p <12960; defining the parity bits at predetermined intervals into parity bit sets in accordance with the following equation: P j = p k | j ≡ k mod 36, 0 ≤ k < 12960 where P j denotes a j th parity bit set, p k denotes a k th parity bit, and 0 ≤ j < q = 36; determining a number m of parity bit sets based on the number of parity bits for puncturing, in accordance with m = ⌊ N p M 1 ⌋, puncturing all parity bits of m parity bit sets P π, P π,..., P π( m- 1) of said parity bit sets P j, where indexes π,..., π(m-1) are defined by the following table, π π π π π π π π π 27 13 29 32 5 0 11 21 33 π π π π π π π π π 20 25 28 18 35 8 3 9 31 π π π π π π π π π 22 24 7 14 17 4 2 26 16 π π π π π π π π π 34 19 10 12 23 1 6 30 15 i = index indicating i th column group; j = index indicating j th column in a column group; q = (N 1 -K 1) / M 1; M 1 = number of columns per column group; D i = a degree, i.e. number of non-zero entries, of a 0 th column in each i th column group; R i, 0 1, R i, 0 2,..., R i, 0 D i = positions of rows with a value of 1 in a 0 th column in each i th column group; and R i, j k k = 1, 2,..., D i = positions of rows with a value of 1 in a j th column in an i th column group, determining, by the puncturing pattern applier, a number of parity bits Np for puncturing where 0< N p <12960; defining the parity bits at predetermined intervals into parity bit sets in accordance with the following equation: P j = p k | j ≡ k mod 36, 0 ≤ k < 12960 where P j denotes a j th parity bit set, p k denotes a k th parity bit, and 0 ≤ j < q = 36; determining a number m of parity bit sets based on the number of parity bits for puncturing, in accordance with m = ⌊ N p M 1 ⌋, puncturing all parity bits of m parity bit sets P π, P π,..., P π( m- 1) of said parity bit sets P j, where indexes π,..., π(m-1) are defined by the following table, π π π π π π π π π 27 13 29 32 5 0 11 21 33 π π π π π π π π π 20 25 28 18 35 8 3 9 31 π π π π π π π π π 22 24 7 14 17 4 2 26 16 π π π π π π π π π 34 19 10 12 23 1 6 30 15