Patent ID: 8819720

Claim:
A system for distributing access-restricted content in an internet protocol-based television environment, the system comprising: a decoder unit, in operative communication with a network and locatable in the network by an internet protocol address, and configured to: receive a key from a key store configured to store the key, the key being associated with a set of access rights for an account; and transmit, over the network, entitlement information relating to the set of access rights; and a network entitlement handler unit, in operative communication with the network, and configured to: receive, over the network from the decoder unit, a request for a requested content set; receive, over the network, a set of access-restricted content, the set of access-restricted content having limited accessibility based at least in part on the set of access rights and comprising at least a portion of the requested content set; receive the internet protocol address corresponding to the requesting decoder unit; and transmit the set of access-restricted content over the network to the network address using the internet protocol.