In this paper, we describe a configurable content-based MPEG video authentication scheme, which is robust to typical video transcoding approaches, namely frame resizing, frame dropping and requantization. By exploiting the synergy between cryptographic signature, forward error correction (FEC) and digital watermarking, the generated content-based message authentication code (MAC or keyed crypto hash) is embedded back into the video to reduce the transmission cost. The proposed scheme is secure against malicious attacks such as video frame insertion and alteration. System robustness and security are balanced in a configurable way (i.e., more robust the system is, less secure the system will be). Compressed-domain process makes the scheme computationally efficient. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is compliant with state-of-the-art public key infrastructure. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed scheme