Best TV subscription for a family: screens, kids

A family does not choose a TV subscription the way a couple does. In the evening you need one screen for the cartoon, one for the match, one for the eldest's series, and a recording running through all of it. On that front, Telenet, VOO and Orange accept 5 screens in their app, Proximus 2. The price follows, and I checked it off-promotion.

Which TV subscription suits a family, operator by operator?

The one that handles four screens on the same evening without a hidden add-on. Here are the four price lists, side by side, on 15 October 2026.

I kept the criteria that matter in a home with children, and nothing else: the price you pay once the promotion ends, the number of screens in the app, recordings, kids' channels at no extra cost, and the second box. The channel count from the brochure is not there, because it does not say which channels actually reach your address.

The last row settles half the cases before the others. A family in Charleroi cannot take Telenet, a family in Ghent cannot take VOO. Orange runs over VOO's cable in Wallonia and Brussels, and over Telenet's in Flanders. Proximus is everywhere, on its own line.

How many screens can you use at the same time, by operator?

Five at Telenet, VOO and Orange. Two at Proximus.

That is the figure that surprises families most, and it is written in black and white. The FAQ for Proximus's Flex bundles, reread on 15 October 2026, states that the Pickx app can be installed on 5 smartphones or tablets on the same account and lets you watch on 2 devices at the same time. The third child who opens the app on a tablet gets an error message. The same FAQ says the web version, on a computer, has no such limit, which helps out for one evening but does not replace a tablet in bed.

At Telenet, the help page on simultaneous viewing advertises 5 screens at once with a TV box, but only 2 for Streamz Premium, Play More and Play Sports in the app, and a single one in the Play Sports app. A father following football on the tablet while the mother watches a Streamz series has already used up the premium quota.

VOO allows 10 profiles in VOO TV+, 5 of them in use at the same time, according to its help page on profiles. Orange writes « jusqu'à 5 appareils en simultané », up to 5 devices simultaneously, on the page for its TV app.

A screen in the app is also the bedroom television, if it is a smart TV. That is where the figure turns into money.

Which TV subscription lets you record several programmes at once?

All four. But only one publishes a precise figure for its box, and another promises unlimited.

VOO is the only Belgian operator that still records onto a hard drive inside the box, as Test-Achats, the Belgian consumer association, noted in its comparison of 9 December 2024. Its support page gives the number: 3 programmes recorded while you watch a fourth one live. The downside is the disk. It fills up, and a recording does not survive a change of box.

Telenet made the opposite choice back in 2019 with cloud recording. On its app page, reread on 15 October 2026, it advertises an unlimited number of programmes recorded at the same time. Recordings are kept for up to a year.

Proximus and Orange also record in the cloud. The Pickx guide for the V6 TV Box mentions 50 hours in total, 60 days of storage by default and up to 3 years for whatever you mark to keep. Orange keeps 50 hours for up to a year, according to Test-Achats. Neither publishes a cap on simultaneous recordings. The Proximus guide only warns that if a clash is left unresolved, only the first scheduled recording is kept.

Fifty hours is short for a family. Three animated films a week for the little ones, two matches, a series: the gauge is full within a month, and the favourite cartoon is the first thing to be deleted.

Which kids' channels are included at no extra cost?

At Orange and VOO, the essentials. At Proximus, part of them come with a paid add-on.

I went through the channel lists published for Wallonia, because the number on the brochure does not say which channels reach your address. Orange's list for Wallonia, dated July 2026, includes 7 kids' channels without any add-on: Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Nick Jr, Gulli and Canal J. The Orange TV Family add-on, at €15 a month with no commitment, adds Piwi+, Cartoonito, Boomerang, Dreamworks and Mangas, along with around fifteen film and documentary channels.

VOO's channel numbering of 1 July 2026 places 6 kids' channels in the basic offer: Piwi+, Nickelodeon, Boomerang, Gulli, Disney Channel and Disney Junior. Nick Jr, Tiji, Canal J, Cartoonito, Cartoon Network and TéléToon+ sit in the Family Fun extra, 19 channels, which VOO does not price on its own. The Combo Loisirs, Family Fun plus Discover More, costs €20 a month.

Proximus does the opposite. Boomerang, Canal J, Mangas, Nick Jr, Tiji and Gulli are grouped in the Entertainment Standard add-on, formerly Pickx Mix: €0 for the first month, then €12.99 a month, checked on 15 October 2026. The rest of the basic kids' line-up depends on the region, and Proximus points to its channel list tool by municipality.

• Gulli is included at VOO and Orange, paid at Proximus.
• Disney Junior is included at VOO and Orange.
• Cartoonito is paid wherever it is offered.
• Ketnet, the children's channel of VRT, the Flemish public broadcaster, is in the basic Flemish offers, Telenet included.
• The Auvio Kids app from RTBF, the French-speaking public broadcaster, is free, with no TV subscription.

How much does a second set-top box cost for the children's room?

Between €7 and €9 a month, or €168 to €216 over two years.

Proximus charges €9 a month for the second TV Box and €6 for the third, price checked on 18 September 2026. The Flex Premium bundle includes two at no extra cost. Orange asks €9 a month per box, three at most, and €59 if an installer fits it. Telenet rents the extra box for €7 a month. VOO displays no price for the second .évasion box and requires a technician at home: you have to call.

For seven years I installed set-top boxes around Namur. The second box for the children's room was the most common order in September, just after the school year started, and it was also the one people came to return in June. Before renting it, check whether the bedroom television runs your operator's app. If it does, it counts as an app screen, for free. At Proximus, it falls within the limit of 2.

How much does a family of four pay over twenty-four months?

Between €1,728 and €2,544, depending on the operator and the add-ons. The calculation below starts from off-promotion prices, in other words the price of the thirteenth bill.

Welcome promotions change from one month to the next, and I leave them out of the table. They reduce the first year, never the second. The scenario is the same for all four: one television in the living room, one in the bedroom, tablets on the app, and the kids' add-on wherever the operator charges for it.

The VOO row is incomplete, and on purpose: the second box has no public price. If the bedroom makes do with the wall socket, €1,728 holds. Otherwise, add whatever VOO tells you on the phone. The Orange row does not include the €59 for an installer.

The figure that annoys me most is Proximus's. A family that wants Gulli and more than two screens in the app pays €97.98 a month and is still stuck at 2 screens. At Orange, at €91 without any add-on, it pays €6.98 less and gets Gulli among 7 included kids' channels, on 5 screens.

Four mistakes that inflate a family's bill

• Renting a second box for a smart TV that already runs the operator's app.
• Taking a kids' add-on at Orange or VOO to get Disney Junior, which is already included.
• Counting on the Pickx app for three children and two parents: it stops at 2 screens.
• Letting recordings pile up on a 50-hour allowance, then finding that a scheduled episode was skipped.

If the operator bills you for a box you returned, write to it first. The Ombudsman for Telecommunications then handles the case free of charge, and BIPT, the Belgian telecom regulator, sets out your rights as a consumer.

My verdict by type of family

The head-to-head between the two national operators is covered in Telenet or Proximus for TV. For sport at home, see the best TV subscription for sport. And to compare bundles on the second-year price, use the TV subscription ranking.

Sources. Proximus, FAQ for Flex bundles (5 devices, 2 simultaneous, first TV Box included) and Entertainment Standard add-on page (€12.99/month), reread on 15 October 2026; Pickx user guide for the V6 TV Box (50 hours, 60 days, 3 years); Proximus TV equipment page, checked on 18 September 2026 (€9 and €6); Telenet, « Met hoeveel kan je tegelijk tv-kijken? » and « Telenet TV app » pages, reread on 15 October 2026; VOO, help pages on VOO TV+ profiles and on simultaneous recordings with the .évasion box, reread on 15 October 2026, channel numbering of 1 July 2026, TV extras page; Orange Belgium, TV app page and Orange TV Family page (€15/month), reread on 15 October 2026, Wallonia channel list of July 2026, extra set-top box page checked on 3 October 2026; Test-Achats, « Enregistrer avec sa box : quel opérateur choisir ? », 9 December 2024; off-promotion prices for Proximus checked on 27 September 2026, Telenet on 11 October 2026, Orange on 3 October 2026, VOO price list of 1 January 2026.