Terrestrial channels: categories, favourites and search
If you have children asking for their programme and dinner to get on the table at the same time, hunting through thousands of channels is not an option. This guide is for households that want to reach the main terrestrial channels in a few taps — and stay there reliably. By the end you will have a shortlist of favourites, a clear sense of how categories narrow the list, and a search habit that cuts straight through.
With 50,000+ channels available through Pro IPTV UK, the full list can feel overwhelming at first glance. The tools to tame it — categories, favourites and search — are built into every major player app, and they work the same basic way whether you are on a phone, a smart TV or a streaming stick.
How categories cut the list to something manageable
Every player worth using groups channels into named categories. The exact labels vary — you might see 'UK', 'Entertainment', 'Kids' or region-specific groupings — but the principle is the same: instead of scrolling a list of tens of thousands, you are looking at a few dozen or a few hundred.
Open your player and look for a panel on the left or along the top. In IPTV Smarters Pro it appears as a sidebar when you tap the menu icon; in TiviMate the category row sits at the top of the guide view. Tap the category that covers UK free-to-air or general entertainment, and the list shrinks to something you can scan in a few seconds.
If you share the account with older children who have their own habits, each category is entirely separate. Switching takes one tap, so there is no need to scroll past sport or news to reach children's channels, or vice versa.
Building a favourites list you will actually use
Categories are good for browsing; favourites are good for living. The channels a household returns to every day — whichever terrestrial ones those happen to be — belong in a favourites list so they are always one or two taps away.
In IPTV Smarters Pro, hold your finger on a channel name until a menu appears, then choose the option to add it to favourites. TiviMate lets you long-press in the guide or press the star button on your remote, depending on the device. Either way, the channel appears in a 'Favourites' category that sits permanently at the top of your category list.
Keep the list short. Five or six channels load faster visually and are easier to scan than twenty. If a channel moves out of regular rotation — a holiday, a change in viewing habits — remove it. A tidy favourites list is more useful than an exhaustive one.
For a broader look at how live IPTV differs from on-demand services and when each approach suits a family, this practical guide to IPTV versus on-demand apps explains the trade-offs clearly.
Frequently asked questions
- Can different family members have separate favourites lists?
Most player apps tie the favourites list to the app installation on a specific device rather than to the account itself, so a phone and a living-room TV will each hold their own list. If two people share one device, the favourites list is shared too — the simplest solution is to keep it short and focused on channels everyone agrees on.
- What if a channel I add to favourites stops loading?
Remove it and search for it again — the playlist is updated periodically and the channel entry may have a new identifier. Adding the fresh result from search usually resolves it.
- Do categories stay the same after a playlist update?
The category names are part of the playlist, so they can change when the playlist is refreshed. If a category you relied on disappears, search is the quickest way to locate channels that were inside it.
- Is there a quicker way to switch categories on a TV remote?
In TiviMate you can assign a remote button to cycle through categories — check the key assignment settings in the app. IPTV Smarters Pro lets you use the left and right directional buttons to move between categories once the sidebar is open.
Using search when you know the channel name
Search is the fastest route when you know what you want. Most player apps place a magnifying-glass icon somewhere on the main screen. Tap it, type the first few characters of the channel name, and matching results appear as you type — there is no need to finish spelling it out.
On a TV remote without a keyboard this can feel slow, but most smart TV apps support voice input through the remote's microphone button. Speak the channel name and the search field fills in. If the remote has no microphone, pair a Bluetooth keyboard or use the player app on your phone as a remote control instead.
Search also helps when you are not sure which category a channel sits in. Some channels appear under more than one grouping depending on how the playlist is structured; search cuts across all of them and returns all matching results at once.
If you enjoy exploring beyond the terrestrial staples, the same category and search tools work just as well for more niche tastes — the guide to sci-fi channels: categories, favourites and search walks through exactly the same workflow for a very different section of the library.
Settling the account and getting started
Once you subscribe, the login details arrive by email. Check the spam folder if nothing appears in a short while. The email contains everything you need: the credentials to enter into whichever player app you choose.
IBO Player is a reasonable starting point on Android devices if you have not used a player app before — the interface is straightforward and categories are visible from the first screen. MAG box owners enter their credentials through the portal interface built into the device. Whichever route you take, the favourites and category tools described above are there from the moment you first sign in.
Set the favourites list up during a quiet moment — not mid-evening with the household waiting. A few minutes spent adding the channels your family actually watches will save a lot of scrolling every day after.