1. A method of providing a user access to recordings of a plurality of programs, the method comprising: maintaining a list, in memory, associated with the user that includes pointers to recordings in a network; scheduling to record a program; determining, in response to the scheduling, that a previously recorded copy of the selected program exists at a location on the network; and updating, using processing circuitry, the list associated with the user with a new pointer that points to the previously recorded copy of the selected program instead of recording the program.