TV replay & recording: which Belgian operator wins?

For replay and recording, there is no single winner in Belgium. Telenet and VOO offer up to 7 days of replay, Proximus 36 hours, and Orange long had no such feature. On the recording side, almost everyone has moved to the cloud with 60 days of retention by default; only Telenet and BASE go up to 1 year.

Replay means the ability to re-watch an already-aired programme without scheduling it, within a window of a few hours to a few days. Recording is a capture you schedule in advance and that is kept longer, in the cloud or on a hard drive. Two close features, but they are not equal from one operator to the next.

Replay or recording: what's the difference in practice?

Replay is automatic and short-lived; recording is deliberate and durable. With replay, you catch up on last night's show without doing anything. With recording, you schedule a series to keep it for weeks. The first depends on the length the operator offers, the second on storage space.

In practice, the line matters for your choice. If you mostly watch on demand in the days after broadcast, long replay is enough and you have nothing to schedule. If you want to build a library (a whole season, films to re-watch in six months), it is the recording's retention that becomes the criterion. Most comparators mix the two and show only a channel count; yet real comfort is decided on these two features.

For example, a household that watches RTBF and RTL on demand at the weekend is happy with the 7-day replay of VOO or Telenet. A series fan who wants to keep ten episodes for several months needs long retention, which only Telenet and BASE push to 1 year.

Which operator offers the longest replay in Belgium?

On cable, Telenet and VOO lead with 7 days of replay. Proximus (Pickx) offers 36 hours on its base tier and up to 72 hours on a higher tier. Orange has long been the weak point of the market, with no widespread replay on its TV plan.

The gap is concrete day to day. With 36 hours you catch up on last night's episode, not Tuesday's. With 7 days you watch the whole week at your own pace, never scheduling a recording. For anyone who watches on demand, that window is the most structuring feature, far more than the channel count printed on the brochure.

One caveat: replay is never guaranteed on 100% of channels. Agreements are negotiated channel by channel, and some block the feature or fast-forwarding through ads. Before choosing an operator for its replay, check that it covers your channels, not just the big national ones.

Is replay available on every channel?

No. Replay depends on an agreement between the operator and each channel. The big Belgian channels (RTBF, VRT, RTL) and the main French channels are almost always covered; some themed or foreign channels can be excluded. On some, you also will not be able to skip the ads. It is a detail to check on your actual line-up before signing.

Cloud or hard drive: how does each operator record?

Almost all operators have moved to the cloud. According to Test-Achats, the recent decoders of Orange, Proximus, Scarlet and Telenet all record in the cloud. Only VOO keeps a decoder with a physical hard drive. That technical choice decides retention and risk.

The cloud stores your recordings on the operator's servers, which frees up the decoder but imposes a time limit. The hard drive keeps files as long as the operator supports the hardware, with no connection, but its capacity is capped: a full drive means no more recording. Both approaches share the same Achilles heel, which the sales sheets avoid highlighting.

How long are recordings kept?

The standard length is 60 days in the cloud at most operators. Telenet and BASE, which use the same TV Box, are the exception: there you choose 1 week, 1 month, 2 months or 12 months per recording, up to 1 year. Orange caps the cloud at 50 hours of recording, kept up to 1 year.

These lengths tend to shrink, not grow. Telenet has moved from a maximum retention of 5 years to 1 year: since the autumn, programmes recorded more than a year ago are gradually removed from libraries. The unlimited storage of the past is gone, including on hard-drive decoders. It is the kind of change you often discover after the fact, when an old recording has already vanished.

The operator justifies this trend by real usage. Telenet reports that its customers watch 80% of their recordings within the following week. In other words, for the vast majority of programmes, 7-day replay does the same job as a recording, with nothing to schedule or clutter a library.

Belgian TV providers compared: replay and recording

Here are the main operators, their replay length, storage type and recording retention, recorded in June 2026. The figures are reference points: the detail depends on the plan, the decoder and the channel.

Telenet combines the longest replay and the most flexible retention, at the price of a cloud decoder. VOO is the only one to keep a hard drive, handy without a connection but vulnerable to failure. Proximus relies on decent replay and standard retention. Orange stays behind on replay and caps the cloud at 50 hours. BASE benefits from the Telenet TV Box, so the same retention options.

Can you record TV without a decoder, from an app?

The no-decoder plans (Proximus Light TV, Orange TV Lite, VOO TV Light, Telenet TV Flow) rely mostly on replay, not on classic scheduled recording. You watch live and on demand via the app, on a smart TV, smartphone or tablet, but the full recording library stays tied to the decoder. If scheduled recording matters to you, keep a plan with a decoder, as we explain in our guide to choosing a TV provider in Belgium.

Is recording still worth it against streaming?

For many households, less and less. Long replay already covers most on-demand viewing, and streaming has taken over for series and films. A rented decoder (often ≈€7/month) billed mainly to record is worth questioning.

The maths has changed. Telenet admits it by gradually removing the cost of cloud storage and pushing its catch-up service. If 80% of recordings are watched within the week, paying for long retention only makes sense for a minority of programmes. For the rest, the 7-day replay of Telenet or VOO, or even the streaming platforms, do the job without a box or scheduling.

The address angle applies here too. Replay and recording run over the same network as your internet, and your real choice is limited to the operators that reach your address, as we detail in our guide cable or VDSL, why the address changes everything. No point chasing the 7-day replay of a cable operator if it does not reach your home.

Should you pay more to keep recordings for a year?

Rarely. Long retention (up to 1 year at Telenet and BASE) only serves a small share of your programmes, the ones you really plan to re-watch months later. For everyday viewing, replay and 60 days of retention are enough. Before choosing a plan on this criterion alone, ask yourself how many recordings you actually watch past the first week.

To go further, start from the technology available at your address with our internet-by-address guide, then compare the real price of bundles via the estimator. In short: replay first, retention next, and the decoder in the price calculation.