An encoding method applied to an input video sequence corresponding to successive scenes subdivided into successive video object planes (VOPs) is provided that generates, for coding all the video objects of said scenes, a coded bit stream the content of which is described in terms of separate channels and constituted of encoded video data in which each data item is described by a bitstream syntax that allows the recognition and decoding of all the elements of the content. The syntax comprises an additional syntactic information provided for describing independently the type of temporal prediction of the various channels. The additional information is a syntactic element placed at the slice level or the macroblock level in the coded bitstream, and its meaning is either specific for each present channel or shared by all existing channels.