Techniques where a computing device such as a smart phone can be leveraged to facilitate video on demand (“VOD”) services through a set top box (“STB”) associated with a content subscription service such as satellite television are described. In an exemplary embodiment, a request for VOD content can be communicated from the STB to the computing device via a personal area network (“PAN”) connection such as Bluetooth. The computing device in turn can forward the VOD content request to a VOD authorization server over a wide area network (“WAN”).