The invention distributes bitstreams by a server to a plurality of client devices connected to the server via a network, in which the server device transfers a bitstream via the network to a client device belonging to the plurality of client devices, and in which the bitstream may be transcoded according to a plurality of predetermined transcoding methods. In the invention, a rate associated with each of the bitstreams is calculated after application of at least one of the plurality of transcoding methods. Each client device is classified, and a determination is made, among the plurality of predetermined transcoding methods, those which are acceptable for each client device, depending on the calculated rates and the classification. A global selection of a set of transcoding methods is then performed, each method being associated with a client device of the plurality of client devices, among the acceptable methods, depending on predetermined criteria comprising at least taking into account bandwidth of the network.