IPTV EPG and Catch-Up TV: How They Actually Work

Last updated: October 2026 · MizoIPTV support team · the two features people only miss once they are gone

What the EPG actually is

EPG stands for Electronic Programme Guide: the schedule of what is on, channel by channel, for the next week. Critically, it is not part of the video stream. It is a separate data file (usually XMLTV format) that your player downloads and then matches up to channels by an identifier.

That separation explains almost every EPG complaint:

Fixing a broken guide

1. Check how you signed in. A plain M3U playlist usually arrives without any EPG. Delete the profile and re-add with Xtream Codes — this fixes it most of the time.
2. Let it finish. A full 7-day guide across a large line-up takes a minute or two on first load. Judging it before then is the most common false alarm.
3. Force a refresh. TiviMate: Settings → EPG → update. Smarters: Settings → EPG.
4. Fix the time zone. If everything is out by a consistent number of hours, that is a time shift setting in the player, not broken data.
5. Still wrong on specific channels? Tell us the channel names — a missing EPG identifier is something we fix at our end, and it is a genuinely useful report.

Catch-up TV

Catch-up means the provider records supported channels on the server as they broadcast, and keeps them for a window — about 7 days on MizoIPTV. In your player, the guide then scrolls backwards: pick a programme from Tuesday, press play, and it streams from that recording.

Points worth knowing:

• It is per channel, not universal. Not every channel supports catch-up; the ones that do are usually the major networks.
• It is server-side. Nothing is stored on your device and it uses none of your storage.
• It is not the same as recording. Catch-up is a provider feature with a fixed window; recording is a player feature that keeps a file for as long as you like. If you want to keep something permanently, record it.
• It needs Xtream Codes. A plain M3U link cannot ask for it.

Using catch-up

In TiviMate: open the guide, scroll left into the past, select a programme and play. Channels with catch-up show past programmes as selectable rather than greyed out.

In IPTV Smarters Pro: there is a dedicated Catch-up section on the home screen listing the channels that support it, then a date and programme picker.

Why these two decide how a service feels

A channel list alone is a worse experience than cable. The guide is what makes a large line-up navigable — without it you are flicking blind through thousands of channels. Catch-up is what removes the one real advantage a DVR had. Together they are the difference between “a lot of channels” and “a television service”.

They are also a decent proxy for infrastructure quality. Maintaining accurate EPG data across tens of thousands of channels, and recording hundreds of them continuously for a week, is real ongoing work. A provider that has both working properly is doing the unglamorous part of the job — which is why we suggest checking both on a trial.

Test both before you pay

1. Open the guide and scroll three days forward. Check five channels you know the schedule of.
2. Scroll one day back and play something via catch-up.
3. Check the times match your actual time zone.
4. Note which of your favourite channels support catch-up — not all will.

Five minutes, and it tells you more than any channel count. Request a trial and run it.

Providers by country

A good guide matters most for your own country’s channels. Providers built around specific markets:

• BugsTV — a French-language IPTV service for France, Belgium and Quebec.
• NorvikTV — built around Scandinavian channels for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
• KiloTV — a long-running IPTV subscription for the USA, the UK and Canada.

Next steps

If your guide is empty right now, start with how you signed in — that is the cause most of the time. Setup per app: TiviMate, IPTV Smarters Pro. Everything MizoIPTV includes is on the channels list.

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