System and method for controlling access to broadcast services

In a system capable of displaying multimedia segments, a method of interfacing with a plurality of conditional access providers that are each capable of automatically limiting access to the multimedia segments, wherein the method interfaces with each of the plurality of conditional access providers using a standardized interface even though the plurality of conditional access providers follow different interface standards, the method comprising the following:

• a specific act of receiving a request to access a multimedia segment;
• a specific act of sending a notification to a conditional access manager upon receipt of the request, wherein the conditional access manager is the single standard interface between the system and the plurality of conditional access providers;
• a specific act of the conditional access manager querying each of the plurality of conditional access providers in response to the notification to determine whether access to the multimedia segment should be granted, such that each conditional access provider provides a response indicating whether the system should be presented access to the multimedia segment;
• a step for determining whether the access to the multimedia segment should be granted based on responses to the queries, such that access to the multimedia segment is denied if any of the plurality of conditional access providers indicates the multimedia segment should not be presented to the system.

A system capable of displaying multimedia segments, the system comprising the following:

• a controller;
• a multimedia manager coupled to the controller so as to receive a request to access a multimedia segment from the controller;
• a conditional access manager coupled to the multimedia manager so as to receive from the multimedia manager a notification of the request,
• wherein the conditional access manager interfaces with a plurality of different conditional access providers that are each configured to determine whether access to the multimedia segment should be granted,
• wherein the conditional access manager queries each of the plurality of conditional access provides and receives a corresponding response from each of the conditional access providers that indicates whether access to the multimedia segment should be granted to the system,
• wherein the conditional access manager is coupled to the multimedia manager so as to notify the multimedia manager of any responses received from the plurality of conditional access providers, and
• wherein the multimedia manager is configured to determine based on the responses whether the multimedia segment should be presented, wherein access to the multimedia segment is denied if any of the plurality of conditional access providers indicates in a response to the queries that the multimedia segment should not be presented to the system.