Electronic Program Guide (EPG)

Give every live channel a schedule your viewers can actually read. Vodlix turns your XMLTV feed into a clean, browsable guide on the web, on mobile and on TV, so people always know what is on now and what is coming up next.

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Electronic Program Guide (EPG)

A Channel Without a Schedule Is Just a Stream

Linear TV works because viewers know what is coming. Take the schedule away and a live channel turns into a black box. People tune in, catch something halfway through, and leave. A programme guide solves that. It shows what is playing now, what follows it, and what is worth coming back for on Thursday night. Vodlix builds the guide into every screen you ship, so the channels you spent months programming finally get browsed instead of stumbled across. New to the format? Our complete guide to EPGs walks through how the data travels from your provider to the viewer.


Vodlix Resful API
Bring your own XMLTV feed

Paste your EPG URL next to the HLS and DVR URLs when you add a live channel. Vodlix polls the feed, reads the programme data and keeps the guide current without anyone touching it again.

Vodlix Time Shift
Seven days, forward and back

Viewers slide along a day strip to see the week ahead or find what they missed. Once DVR is switched on, yesterday's programmes stay one click away instead of vanishing at midnight.

Vodlix Content Search
Search, filter and jump

A guide only earns its place if people can find things in it. Channel search, genre filters and the ability to jump straight into a channel take a viewer from wondering what is on to watching.

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Designed for the Remote Control

On a television, a guide lives or dies by how it feels under a remote. Vodlix lays it out for exactly that. The day strip sits on the left, the programme list runs down the middle, and the channel list stays docked on the right so viewers never lose their place. Whatever is playing keeps a live preview in the corner with its synopsis and quality badge, so people can look ahead without giving up what they are already watching. Every part of it responds to a directional pad. Nothing needs a cursor.


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One Guide, Every Screen

Publish the schedule once and it appears everywhere your audience watches. The guide sits in the main navigation of your TV apps, travels into your mobile apps, and renders on the web with no separate build. Because every screen reads the same feed, a late schedule change reaches a phone in a living room and a Roku in a hotel lobby at the same moment. There is nothing to maintain platform by platform, and no listings quietly drifting out of sync.


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Live Channels and On Demand, Side by Side

Most viewers do not think in delivery models. They just want something to watch. Vodlix puts your linear channels and your on demand library in one interface, so a guide entry can lead someone straight into a box set, and a finished broadcast can hand them the recorded version. That is the difference between a channel list bolted onto a video app and something that genuinely feels like television. Run it alongside IPTV and live streaming and the whole operation sits on one back end.


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Where a Channel Gets Its Schedule

A channel and its guide are configured together rather than in separate places. The same screen that carries the stream also takes the EPG feed, so switching a guide on is a field rather than a project, and a channel that changes provider keeps its listings without anything else being touched.


Schedules That Earn Their Keep

A guide is prime real estate. It is the one screen where a viewer is actively choosing what to watch next, which makes it the best place you have to promote a premiere, surface a sponsored slot or nudge someone toward an upgrade. Vodlix connects the guide to your monetization models, so the same programme can sit behind a subscription tier for one viewer and open into a stream paid for by advertising for another. Meanwhile reports and analytics show which slots actually pull an audience, so next quarter's schedule gets built on numbers instead of instinct.


Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about taking advantage of this limited-time offer? Check out the FAQ for answers.

What is an Electronic Program Guide?
An Electronic Program Guide, or EPG, is the onscreen schedule that tells viewers what is playing on each of your live channels and what is coming up next. It usually appears as a grid of channels against time slots, and it is what turns a plain list of streams into something people can browse and plan around.
How do I add an EPG to a channel in Vodlix?
Open Manage Live TV in the Vodlix admin area and either add a new live channel or edit an existing one. Next to the HLS and DVR URLs you will find a field for the EPG URL. Paste in your XMLTV feed, save, and the guide fills in automatically across your web, mobile and TV apps.
What EPG data format does Vodlix support?
Vodlix reads standard XMLTV feeds, which is what the large majority of channel operators and independent listings providers already publish. If you receive schedule data from a broadcaster or an aggregator, it will almost certainly arrive in a form Vodlix can read directly.
How far ahead does the guide show?
That depends on how much data your feed carries. Vodlix shows whatever the feed provides, and most operators supply around a week ahead. Viewers move through it using the day strip, so a full seven days of programming is there without ever leaving the guide.
Does the EPG work with DVR and catch up?
Yes. Once a channel has DVR enabled, the guide becomes a way into your recordings as well as your live output. Viewers can move back along the day strip and start a programme that has already aired, which is usually the single biggest lift in watch time operators see after switching the guide on.
Is the guide available on TV apps as well as web and mobile?
It is. The same schedule renders on your website, in your iOS and Android apps, and across the TV apps including Roku, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Android TV and Apple TV. The television layout is built for navigating with a remote rather than being a stretched version of the web view.
Can I run a channel without an EPG?
You can. A live channel streams perfectly well with only an HLS URL, so the guide is entirely optional. That said, channels that publish one tend to hold viewers considerably longer, because people can see a reason to stay rather than judging the channel on whatever happens to be playing when they arrive.