A method of media content discovery and playback, the method including receiving a query for media content items from a search client, the query including one or more user subscriber group identifiers and a plurality of search criteria, filtering a plurality of available media content items according to the query to generate a list of matching content items among the plurality of available media content items, returning the list of matching content items to the search client, receiving from the search client a selection token with a content item to subscriber group mapping, providing the token to a user rights manager, receiving a signature authentication from the user rights manager, and issuing a playback key to the search client.