The invention relates to a process and a device for time-managing the utilization of data detected in a data flow and constituting a data set. The device comprises a circuit (MP) for calculating a minimum duration of utilization of the detected data, which is proportional to the amount (L) of data contained in the data set. The invention applies more particularly to the case in which the detected data are digital data representing subtitles detected in a flow of data conveyed according to the MPEG 2 System transport standard. The utilization of the data then corresponds to the displaying of the subtitles.