IPTV Apps and Players
Kodi IPTV: how to add your subscription with PVR IPTV Simple Client
Short answer: Kodi plays an IPTV subscription through one official add-on, PVR IPTV Simple Client. Install it from Kodi’s own repository, paste your M3U playlist URL and your XMLTV guide URL into its settings, restart Kodi, and a TV section fills with your channels.
Kodi IPTV setup looks harder than it is. Kodi is a free media centre built for your own film files and music, and live television is something it only learns through an add-on. One add-on is enough, and it comes from the official repository. No third-party repositories. No custom builds.
Semrush counts about 260 UK searches a month for “kodi iptv”. When I ran that search in November 2026, the first page held the official wiki, the add-on’s code page, a few tech blogs and several seller pages, and most of them stop at “paste your URL”. The settings people get stuck on come after that, so this page spends its time there.
What is Kodi IPTV and what does PVR IPTV Simple Client do?
Kodi IPTV means watching the live channels of an IPTV subscription inside Kodi’s TV section. Kodi ships with no channels of its own, so an add-on called PVR IPTV Simple Client reads your playlist in M3U format and your programme guide in XMLTV format, then passes both to Kodi’s channel list and guide screens.
PVR stands for personal video recorder, the part of Kodi that handles live television. The official Kodi wiki page for PVR IPTV Simple Client describes two ways to feed it. The first needs separate backend software or a hardware tuner box on your network. The second is a client that receives the streams directly, and the wiki says there is only one of those: IPTV Simple Client.
The add-on is open source under the GPL licence and sits in the Kodi repository for versions 20 and 21, which is why you never have to download it from a website. It plays what you give it and nothing else. If the playlist is empty, so is Kodi.
What do you need before adding IPTV to Kodi?
You need Kodi installed and two web addresses from the provider of your subscription: an M3U playlist URL for the channels and an XMLTV URL for the guide. A username and password on their own are not enough, because the add-on has no login screen, only fields for file locations.
Get these ready first:
- Install Kodi from your device’s app store or from the Kodi project’s own download page.
- Copy the M3U playlist link from your login email.
- Copy the XMLTV guide address from the same email, because Kodi shows an empty guide without one.
- Test your speed on the device you will watch on: 10 Mbps covers HD and 25 Mbps covers 4K.
With Vivid TV the login arrives by email within 10 minutes of ordering, and it includes the M3U playlist link and the XMLTV guide address that Kodi needs. If you are still choosing an app, our comparison of IPTV player apps shows where Kodi sits next to the dedicated players.
How do you set up IPTV on Kodi?
Open Kodi’s Settings, go to Add-ons, choose Install from repository, open PVR clients and install PVR IPTV Simple Client. Then open the add-on’s Configure screen, set Location to Remote path, paste your M3U playlist URL, confirm with OK and restart Kodi so the channels load into the TV section.
The full sequence, using the menu names from the official wiki and the add-on’s own documentation:
- Open Kodi and select the cog icon to reach Settings.
- Choose Add-ons, then Install from repository.
- Open PVR clients and select PVR IPTV Simple Client.
- Press Install and wait for the confirmation in the corner of the screen.
- Go to Settings, Add-ons, My add-ons, PVR Clients and open the add-on.
- Select Configure and stay on the General tab.
- Set Location to Remote path and paste the address into M3U play list URL.
- Confirm with OK, then close Kodi completely and reopen it.
Two details save time. The wiki asks you to disable any other PVR add-on before installing this one, so check My add-ons if Kodi has been used for live TV before. And the settings dialog has four levels, Basic, Standard, Advanced and Expert: when a setting named in this article is missing on your screen, raise the level and it appears.
How do you add the XMLTV TV guide in Kodi?
The guide is a separate file. In the add-on’s Configure screen, open the EPG tab, set Location to Remote path and paste the XMLTV URL from your provider. Kodi matches each programme list to a channel through the tvg-id tag in your playlist, so a wrong or missing tag leaves that channel’s guide blank.
According to the add-on’s documentation it reads XMLTV files that are compressed with Gzip or XZ, so an address ending in .gz is fine as it is. Kodi also fetches guide data only when it needs it. The guide can stay empty for the first minute after a restart.
Two EPG settings fix most guide complaints. EPG time shift moves every listing by a value from -12 to +14 hours, which is the cure when programmes sit exactly one hour early or late after the UK clocks change in March or October. Ignore Case for EPG Channel IDs helps when the IDs in the playlist and the guide differ only in capital letters.
How do you load only some channel groups in Kodi?
Use the Groups tab. Set TV group mode to Some groups, choose how many groups you want, up to 5, and type each group name exactly as it appears in the playlist. The names are case-sensitive. Kodi then imports only those groups, which keeps the channel list short and the start-up quick.
This matters more than it sounds. A Vivid TV playlist covers 34,000 live channels, and Kodi’s default mode, All groups, tries to import every one of them. On a streaming stick that means a long wait at each start and a channel list nobody can scroll.
To find the exact names, open the M3U file in a text editor and search for group-title. Copy the text between the quotation marks. If you need more than 5 groups, the Custom groups mode reads the list of names from a small XML file, and the add-on installs an example file you can edit.
Since Kodi 20 the add-on also accepts more than one playlist and guide pair. Open Configure and choose Add add-on configuration. A second configuration is a tidy way to keep a film-heavy playlist apart from your live channels.
Why does Kodi need a restart after you change the playlist?
The add-on reads the playlist when Kodi starts, so a new URL or a changed group setting only takes effect after a restart unless auto refresh is on. Auto refresh mode offers Repeated refresh, on an interval of up to 120 minutes, and Once per day at an hour you choose.
For a home setup I would pick Once per day and set the refresh hour to a time when nobody is watching, such as 5 in the morning. Channel line-ups do not change by the hour, and a refresh in the middle of a film is an interruption you do not need.
One trade-off is documented: caching is switched off while auto refresh is in use. With refresh disabled and Cache M3U at local storage turned on, Kodi keeps a stored copy of the playlist between sessions, and a manual restart picks up any change.
What are the common Kodi IPTV errors and how do you fix them?
Most Kodi IPTV errors start with one of the two addresses, not with Kodi. An empty TV section usually means the playlist URL is mistyped or entered under the wrong Location. A guide without programmes points to the XMLTV address or to channel IDs that do not match.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No channels after restart | Playlist URL wrong or Location set to Local path | Re-enter the URL under Remote path and restart |
| Channels load, guide is empty | XMLTV URL missing or channel IDs differ | Add the URL on the EPG tab, try Ignore Case for EPG Channel IDs |
| Guide is one hour out | Time offset in the guide file | Change EPG time shift by one hour |
| A group is missing | Group name typed in the wrong case | Copy the group-title text exactly |
| A setting is not on screen | Settings level is Basic | Raise the level to Advanced or Expert |
| Every channel buffers | Connection too slow at the device | Test for 10 Mbps in HD or 25 Mbps in 4K |
| Stream stops when another screen starts | One connection on the plan | Stop the other screen first |
There is a quick way to split the blame. Paste the same playlist URL into VLC on a laptop, using Media and then Open Network Stream. If VLC lists the channels, the address is good and the fault sits in Kodi’s settings. If VLC fails too, the address is the problem.
Can Kodi show films and catch-up from an IPTV playlist?
Partly. The add-on can list on-demand entries from a playlist as PVR recordings when Show media as recordings is switched on, and it supports catch-up only where the provider’s streams carry it. These items live in Kodi’s TV section, separate from the film library Kodi builds from your own files.
Size is the catch. Vivid TV carries 195,000 films and series, and a playlist that long is heavy for an add-on designed around channel lists. My advice is to keep Kodi for live channels and let a dedicated player handle on-demand titles with the same login.
Pausing live TV works on most streams, because the add-on’s default input for HTTP streams buffers from the moment playback starts, so you can step back to that point and no further. Plex users ask a similar question, and the answer for adding an IPTV playlist to Plex is less friendly than Kodi’s.
Is Kodi the best player for an IPTV subscription?
Kodi suits people who already use it for their own media and want live TV in the same place. For most other households a dedicated player is easier: it takes a username and password and sorts films and series into menus, with no XMLTV address to find. Kodi has the steeper setup of the two.
There are places Kodi cannot go. On a television whose app store does not offer Kodi, a TV app is the practical route, and our Smart IPTV player activation guide covers the most common one. The installation steps for each device list the options for sticks, boxes, phones and computers.
Remember the screen limit as well. A Vivid TV plan has one connection, so Kodi counts as the one screen while it is playing, although the same login can be installed in other apps on your own devices. People comparing iptv in uk offers tend to look at channel counts first. With Kodi, the better first question is whether the provider will hand over an M3U address and an XMLTV address at all.
Frequently asked questions
Is PVR IPTV Simple Client free?
Yes. It is an open-source add-on under the GPL licence and it installs from the official Kodi repository at no charge. It contains no channels.
Does Kodi come with IPTV channels?
No. Kodi is a media centre and the add-on is only a reader for playlists. Every channel comes from the M3U playlist of your own subscription.
Can I log in to Kodi with an IPTV username and password?
Not with this add-on. It has fields for an M3U playlist location and an XMLTV location, so use the two addresses from your login email. Vivid TV sends both.
Why is my Kodi TV guide empty?
Either the XMLTV URL is missing from the EPG tab or the channel IDs in the guide do not match the tvg-id tags in the playlist. Add the address and restart Kodi, then give the guide a minute to load.
Can I add more than one IPTV playlist to Kodi?
Yes, since Kodi 20. Open the add-on’s Configure screen and choose Add add-on configuration to create a second playlist and guide pair.
Do I have to restart Kodi after changing the playlist URL?
Yes, unless auto refresh is switched on. The add-on checks for a valid playlist at start-up, so close Kodi fully and open it again.