A process for distributing digital video sequences in accordance with a nominal stream format including a succession of frames, each frame including at least one digital block regrouping a plurality of coefficients corresponding to simple, digitally coded visual elements, including: a step of modifying at least one block of the stream, wherein the modification step acts in an adaptive manner on the original stream as a function of at least a part of characteristics representative of structure, contents and parameters of an original video stream, of a profile of an addressee, and of external events, and the modification step includes replacing a part of the coefficients to produce a modified main video stream in nominal format and complimentary modification information that allows reconstruction of the original stream by a decoder of addressed equipment, and wherein the scope of modifications is variable and determined by the representative characteristics, and the modified main video stream and the complementary information are transmitted by separate paths.