An approach is provided for generating Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes. An LDPC encoder generates a short LDPC code by shortening longer mother codes. The short LDPC code has an outer Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem (BCH) code. According to another aspect, for an LDPC code with code rate of 3/5 utilizing 8-PSK (Phase Shift Keying) modulation, an interleaver provides for interleaving bits of the output LDPC code by serially writing data associated with the LDPC code column-wise into a table and reading the data row-wise from right to left. The above approach has particular application in digital video broadcast services over satellite.