Another part of the CA system stores smart card information in a database, and a smart card management system provides it with information on smart cards that have been processed for use in the pay-media operation.

  • An interface to a Subscriber Management System (SMS). The SMS contains a database of all subscribers in the pay-media network. It is capable of performing accounting operations on this data as well as issuing commands to the CA system to enable or disable services for subscribers.

Services supported by CA systems

Most CA systems support methods for authorizing several types of services for subscribers. The most common variants are standard subscription, pay per view (PPV), impulse pay per view (IPPV), video on demand (VOD) and near video on demand (NVOD).