Capstan Channel Syndication (CCS) Format is an XML-based, open way to make live, scheduled and on-demand video content available to virtually any device.

CCS does for scheduled content and video libraries what RSS does for fixed content. A CCS “schedule” is a set of XML files that organize video content into five components:

1. Networks, which consist of Series, Episodes and Segments
2. Series, containing a list of Episodes and Segments
3. Episodes, which consist of one or more Segments
4. Segments, which include links to the actual video content
5. Windows, for content providers who want to bypass the CCS structure, but still want to make their content available to CCS-compatible clients

Each CCS component contains descriptive metadata that’s used to identify, locate and display its contents. The metadata also includes availability schedules for live and on-demand content. Schedules can be changed dynamically by content providers; for example, if a sports event runs past its scheduled end, the content provider can “push” a revised schedule to CCS-compatible clients with new start and end times for subsequent programming. CCS also allows content providers to specify authentication, encryption and transaction processing methods at any level of content granulatity.