Method for operating conditional access system for broadcast applications

In a method for operating a conditional access system for broadcast applications, which conditional access system comprising a number of subscribers, each subscriber having a terminal including a conditional access module and a secure device for storing entitlements, each entitlement indicating a service for which the subscriber receiving the entitlement is entitled to watch, entitlement management messages (EMM's) are sent to a secure device or group of secure devices. These EMM's each provide an entitlement and a corresponding expiry date, wherein the entitlements are refreshed periodically in accordance with their expiry dates by sending EMM's updating the expiry dates. Further, a set of extension entitlement management messages (extension EMM's) is sent to all secure devices, each message indicating that all entitlements having an expiry date within a predetermined first period are extended with a predetermined second period, wherein the EMM's updating the expiry dates are sent after the extension EMM's.