Blog · 25 October 2026

What is an XMLTV EPG? A plain guide for IPTV users

What an XMLTV EPG file is, what is inside it, how IPTV players read it and why the guide can look empty even when the file works.

Every IPTV player with a TV grid, from TiviMate to Kodi, reads the same kind of file to show what is on: an XMLTV EPG. EPG means Electronic Programme Guide. XMLTV is the file format almost every player understands. Knowing what is inside the file makes most guide problems easy to understand.

What the file contains

An XMLTV file is a long text file with two parts. First comes a list of channels: each has an id, one or more display names and often a logo. Then comes a list of programmes: each one says which channel it belongs to, when it starts and ends, and its title, usually with a description, a category and sometimes an episode number.

<channel id="BBCOne.uk">
  <display-name>BBC One</display-name>
</channel>
<programme start="20261025190000 +0000" stop="20261025200000 +0000" channel="BBCOne.uk">
  <title>Strictly Come Dancing</title>
</programme>

Times always carry their offset from UTC (+0000 above), so a player anywhere in the world can show them in local time.

.xml or .xml.gz?

A guide for thousands of channels is large: often hundreds of megabytes of text. That is why guides are usually shared compressed, as .xml.gz. Players unpack it themselves, the download is ten times smaller and it is faster on slow connections. Use the .gz link whenever your player accepts it, which almost all do.

How the player connects the guide to your channels

Your playlist (the M3U or Xtream login from your provider) and the guide are two separate things. The player has to pair each channel of the playlist with a channel of the guide. It does this with the tvg-id written in the playlist, or by comparing channel names. When neither matches, the channel shows "No information", even though the guide file loaded correctly.

This is the most common reason for an empty guide: the names in a generic EPG ("BBCOne.uk") are not the names your provider uses ("UK: BBC ONE ᴴᴰ"). A guide built from your provider's own channel list, like EPG Full, avoids the problem because the names are the same.

How far ahead and how often

A good guide covers at least two or three days ahead and is refreshed often, because schedules change, especially for sports. Players only need to download it every few hours; downloading it every few minutes just slows the box down.

Quick checklist when the guide is empty

  • Is the EPG link added and enabled for your playlist in the player?
  • Did the first download finish? On slow boxes it can take a minute or two.
  • Do the channel names or tvg-ids match the guide? If whole countries are empty, they probably don't.

Our setup guides show where the EPG settings are in each player.

A guide that matches your provider

EPG Full builds the guide from your IPTV provider's own channel list every hour, with logos. Try it free for 2 days.

Start the free trial

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