Programme guide & catch-up TV
A full seven-day guide across every channel, so you can see what's on tonight and what's on Thursday. Plus catch-up on channels that carry it, for the match you missed the first half of.
What the guide actually does
The EPG — electronic programme guide — is the grid your player shows when you press the guide button. It lists what's on now, what's on next, and what's on for the following week across every channel in your lineup, exactly like the guide on a satellite or cable box.
It arrives as a separate stream of data from the channels themselves. That's worth knowing, because it's why a channel can play perfectly while its guide is blank — the video is fine and the metadata simply hasn't loaded.
Seven days ahead
Plan the week rather than the evening. Useful for fixtures announced in advance, and for anyone who records or sets reminders.
Catch-up & rewind
Go back on channels that carry an archive. Typically a few days, sometimes a week — availability varies by channel rather than by plan.
Search across channels
Find a programme by name across the whole lineup at once, instead of scrolling. Considerably better in TiviMate than most other players.
Favourites
Build your own channel list and hide the rest, so the guide shows what you watch instead of 54,000 rows.
Automatic refresh
Listings update daily without you doing anything, provided the auto-update setting is enabled in your player.
Reminders
Set an alert before a programme starts. A player feature rather than ours, but every major player supports it.
The guide that's an hour out
This is the single most reported issue with IPTV guides anywhere, and it is almost never a data fault. It's a time-zone setting — and there's a specific version of it that catches people in Ireland every spring.
Set your player to Europe / Dublin — not GMT
The two look interchangeable. They aren't, and the difference only shows up for half the year.
A fixed offset that never changes. Correct in winter, and exactly one hour behind from late March to late October, when Ireland moves to Irish Standard Time.
A named zone rather than a fixed offset. It follows the clock change automatically, so the guide stays accurate in both summer and winter without you touching it.
When the guide is completely blank
A blank guide is a different problem to an inaccurate one, and it usually comes down to how your player is connected rather than anything missing.
| Symptom | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Guide out by exactly 1 hour | Player set to fixed GMT | Change to Europe/Dublin |
| Guide completely blank | M3U link, or first sync not finished | Add XMLTV, or wait 15 min and refresh |
| Some channels have it, others don't | Source provides no data for those channels | Normal — not a fault on your line |
| Guide stopped updating | Auto-refresh disabled in the player | Enable automatic EPG update |
| Catch-up option missing | That channel carries no archive | Varies by channel, not by plan |
Not every player handles it the same
The guide data is identical whichever app you use. What differs is how well the app displays it — and that difference is large enough to be worth choosing on.
| Player | Guide layout | Catch-up | Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| TiviMate | Best in class | Yes | Across all channels |
| IPTV Smarters Pro | Good | Yes | Basic |
| Smarters Player Lite | Simplified | Limited | Basic |
| Smart TV apps | Varies by app | Often not supported | Limited |
Guide included, always
There's no guide add-on and no catch-up tier. Both come with every plan.
Every plan includes a 7-day money-back guarantee and no automatic renewal. See all eight plans →
Guide questions
Your player is set to a fixed GMT offset rather than the Europe / Dublin zone. GMT is correct in winter but one hour behind from late March to late October, when Ireland moves to Irish Standard Time. Change the setting to Europe / Dublin and it follows the clock change automatically.
Most often you are connected using an M3U playlist, which carries no guide data at all. Either add the separate XMLTV address or switch to Xtream Codes, which loads the guide automatically. On a first setup, allow up to fifteen minutes before assuming a fault.
Typically a few days, sometimes up to a week, depending entirely on whether the channel carries an archive. It varies by channel rather than by plan, so a channel without catch-up will not gain it on a longer subscription.
Guide data comes from the channel source, and not every source provides it. A channel with no listings is normal rather than a fault on your line, and the channel itself will play perfectly regardless.
No. The seven-day guide and catch-up are included in every plan at no additional charge. There is no guide add-on and no catch-up tier — the only differences between plans are length and how many devices stream at once.
That depends on your player rather than on us. TiviMate supports recording to local storage in its premium version, and some other players offer similar features. It is an app function, so check the documentation for whichever player you use.
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Look at it yourself
A 24-hour trial gives you the full seven-day guide on your own television, so you can see how it looks before deciding.
What we supply. IPTV Ireland provides subscription access, playlist credentials and programme guide data. Player applications such as TiviMate and IPTV Smarters Pro are third-party software made by other companies, and guide layout, recording and reminders are functions of those apps rather than ours — our support covers anything server-side. Catch-up availability depends on whether individual channel sources carry an archive.