There exists a third approach between the television and VoD; deferred television or "timeshift". The running programme is paused by the viewer and restarted again after a certain time.

Deferred television facilitates the use of one of the screen-filling applications for example, without the viewer missing parts of a television programme.

Bulk storage is required (e.g. hard drive) in or with the receiver unit. It must be possible to receive the live signal and playback the deferred signal in parallel.