Method of controlling descrambling of a plurality of program transport streams, receiver system and portable secure device

1. A method of controlling descrambling of a plurality of program transport streams received by a receiver system, which method comprises:

receiving a sequence of messages in a conditional access sub-system comprised in said receiver system, each message being associated with one of a number of scrambled program transport streams and representing a request for returning information;

enabling the associated scrambled transport stream to be descrambled by at least one descrambler module in the receiver system;

determining whether messages received within a certain interval are associated with a number of different scrambled program transport streams;

denying at least one of the requests represented by the messages received in the certain interval, if the number of different scrambled program transport streams with which the messages are associated exceeds a pre-determined number; and

determining a value of a time interval between two received messages;

wherein it is determined whether messages received within a certain interval are associated with a number of different scrambled program transport streams by analyzing characteristics of the sequence of received messages.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each message comprises information representative of a time interval between two messages associated with the same scrambled program transport stream, the method comprising comparing the information with the determined value of the time interval.

3. The method according to claim 1 , comprising maintaining a table comprising a plurality of previously determined time interval values between consecutive messages and comparing the determined time interval with at least one value derived from the previously determined time intervals in the table.

4. The method according to claim 1 , comprising receiving channel identifiers with each message, a channel identifier value identifying the scrambled program transport stream with which the message is associated, and analyzing the characteristics of the sequence of received messages by means of their channel identifiers.

5. The method according to claim 4 , comprising populating a table with consecutively received channel identifier values and searching for at least one pre-determined type of pattern in the table.

6. The method according to claim 1 , comprising receiving channel identifiers with each message, a channel identifier value identifying the scrambled program transport stream with which the message is associated, wherein the conditional access sub-system limits the number of program transport streams that can be descrambled by returning information enabling only program transport streams in a set of limited size to be descrambled,

wherein each message comprises a time stamp, representing a time value, the method comprising comparing the time value in a received message with a previously stored time value, wherein the conditional access sub-system only limits the number of program transport streams that can be descrambled if the difference in time values exceeds a certain free switching time interval value.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the conditional access sub-system determines the size of the set from information comprised in an entitlement message received by the receiver system.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein each of the messages received by the conditional access sub-system comprises encrypted control words, wherein the conditional access sub-system decrypts and returns at least the control words.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the previously stored time value is replaced by the time value in the received message if the difference in time values exceeds a certain lock period value.

10. A receiver system, comprising a receiver that comprises at least one tuner for receiving a signal carrying a digital transport stream and at least one demodulator for retrieving a plurality of program transport streams from the received digital transport stream(s), which receiver system further comprises a conditional access sub-system capable of carrying out a method according to claim 1 .

11. The receiver system according to claim 10 , wherein the receiver comprises at least one further tuner and is arranged to simultaneously retrieve a number of program transport streams from digital transport streams carried by signals with different frequencies.

12. A portable secure device, comprising a conditional access sub-system for use in a receiver system according to claim 10 , wherein the conditional access sub-system is capable of carrying out a method according to claim 1 .

13. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors, perform the following operations:

receiving a sequence of messages in a conditional access sub-system comprised in said receiver system, each message being associated with one of a number of scrambled program transport streams and representing a request for returning information;

enabling the associated scrambled transport stream to be descrambled by at least one descrambler module in the receiver system;

determining whether messages received within a certain interval are associated with a number of different scrambled program transport streams;

denying at least one of the requests represented by the messages received in the certain interval, if the number of different scrambled program transport streams with which the messages are associated exceeds a pre-determined number; and

determining the value of a time interval between two received messages;

wherein it is determined whether messages received within a certain interval are associated with a number of different scrambled program transport streams by analyzing characteristics of the sequence of received messages.