Importance

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Abstract

In a pay television system, a program signal is transmitted scrambled to prevent its unauthorized reception, the scrambled signal being accompanied by authorization codes, one for each authorized subscriber, a subscription key and a pay-per-view key. At a receiver, if the appropriate authorization code is received, the receiver functions in the subscription mode in which mode the subscription key provides for the descrambling of the program signal. If the appropriate authorization code is not received, indicating that the subscriber is not pre-authorized to receive the program in an intelligible manner, the receiver is set to function in a pay-per-view mode in which mode, on request, the pay-per-view key provides for the descrambling of the program signal. If there is a delay receiving the appropriate authorization code, the receiver can be set into the pay-per-view mode for at least the period of the delay, so that the scrambled signal is immediately rendered intelligible.

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First Claim