Patent ID: 8238559

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 a network 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; an encoder unit, configured to: receive content from a plurality of content providers; encode at least a portion of the content to create access-restricted content, the access-restricted content and having limited accessibility based at least in part on the set of access rights; and transmit at least a portion of the access-restricted content over the network using the internet protocol; and a network entitlement handler unit, in operative communication with the encoder unit and the network, and configured to: receive, over the network from the decoder unit, a request for a requested content set; receive, from the encoder unit, at least a portion of the access-restricted content, the portion of access-restricted content comprising at least a portion of the requested content set; receive the network address corresponding to the requesting decoder unit; and transmit a transmitted portion of the requested content set over the network to the network address using a transmission scheme, the transmission scheme comprising the internet protocol.