Patent ID: 8069348

Claim:
A communications system for providing a plurality of primary programs and inserted programs to a plurality of host devices, the communications system comprising: a primary program having primary packet identifiers; a secondary program having secondary packet identifiers; and a host device coupled to the communications system, the host device for tuning and demodulating the primary program and the secondary program from the communications system, the host device comprising a socket manufactured into the host device; and a CA module comprising a hardware device for insertion into the socket of the host device, and for receiving the primary program and the secondary program from the host device, the CA module for providing to the host device a spliced program comprising the primary program and the secondary program, wherein the CA module decrypts the primary program identified by the primary packet identifiers, provides the decrypted primary program to the host device for decoding and subsequent viewing and, upon receiving a splice request comprising an embedded cue message, splices into the primary program, a decrypted secondary program identified by the secondary packet identifiers until receiving a splice complete message, wherein the primary and secondary packet identifiers comprise audio and video packet identifiers that differ in value, and wherein the spliced program comprises the primary packet identifiers and, when the splice request is received and processed, the primary packet identifiers are not transmitted until the splice complete message is received and processed wherein the secondary packet identifiers are transmitted subsequent to the splice complete request being received and processed.