PVR Pullback: Bell to delete viewers’ saved TV shows and movies after 60 days

Bell Fibe subscribers are being warned that TV shows and movies saved on their PVRs will vanish much faster starting next month.

The telecom giant has notified users of its Bell Fibe cloud-based personal video recorder that on May 1 it will begin deleting their recordings after 60 days.

Previously, the Bell Fibe service allowed viewers to save recordings for 365 days.

Bell says subscribers will be reminded 15 days before a recording expires.

A representative says the company anticipates “minimal impact” to customers since viewing of “nearly all” recordings takes place within 60 days.

Fellow telecom giant Rogers offers a similar cloud-based PVR option through Rogers Ignite where recordings are automatically deleted after one year.

A Rogers spokesperson says the company has “no plans” to change that expiry period, which exists to “help manage storage capacity.”

In recent years, Bell and other TV providers encouraged their customers to transition away from physical PVRs – which saved recordings on the hardware – to cloud-based systems.

The upside was viewers could access saved programming on televisions as well as mobile phones and other devices. However, it also meant that the providers had to store the high-definition programming on outside servers, which came at a cost.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2024.

CTV News is part of Bell Media, which is owned by BCE.