Channels, versions, hiding and renaming

Everything you can do to a single channel lives in its options. How you open them depends on the device.

Opening a channel’s options

Device	In the channel list	In the TV Guide
Phone and tablet	Press and hold a channel in Live. It is ticked and a bar appears at the bottom; tap more channels to tick them too. The + on a row opens Add to… for that channel alone	Tap the channel’s name
Android TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung TVs	Hold OK on the channel in TV Channels	Hold OK on the channel
Windows and the Mac	Right-click the row	Right-click the channel

On a phone

The bar at the bottom of Live works on every ticked channel:

Add to…: Favorite, Add to group, and for one channel Play when the app opens.
The star adds the ticked channels to your favourites.
Hide hides them, see Hiding a channel.
With one channel ticked: Rename, EPG to pick its guide, Pin or Unpin in a category sorted by Provider order, and Variants when it has other versions.

The sheet that opens from the TV Guide has Watch now, Watch on TV…, Variants, Add to group, Hide channel, Rename and Reassign EPG.

On a television, Windows and the Mac

The sheet starts with Add to favorites and Add to group, then:

Group	Options
Watch	Watch now, Catch-up when the channel keeps past programmes, Variants, Watch in multiview
Library	Move in category, Move in favorites or Move in a group, Play when the app opens, Pin to top of category
Manage	Remove from a group, Remove from Recently watched, Rename, Reassign EPG, Guide time offset, Hide

Only the options that fit where you opened it are shown. In the TV Guide the same sheet offers the programme first, then Variants, Play when the app opens, Rename and Hide, and a new name shows in the guide at once.

Versions of a channel

Providers carry the same station several times over: HD, FHD, 4K, a backup, a copy in another playlist. The app treats copies with the same name as versions of one channel:

Quality marks in the name, such as HD or FHD, are ignored when names are compared.
Copies that point at the same stream count once.
Up to eight versions are offered, best quality first.
With several playlists in view, copies in all of them are versions, each marked with its playlist.
A hidden channel is not offered as a version.

To pick one:

Phone: press and hold the channel in Live and tap Variants, or tap its name in the TV Guide and choose Variants. Television, Windows, the Mac: hold OK on it (right-click on a computer) and choose Variants.
Choose a version from the list. The one you are on says This one.

While a channel plays, Versions in the player switches too, and on a TV remote the blue button steps to the next version, see Live TV.

In Sports, the copies of one network share a tile: hold OK on the tile on a TV, or press and hold it on a phone, to pick a version. Once you picked one, Pick automatically at the end of the list goes back to letting the app choose: your country first, then the best quality.

Hiding a channel

Open the channel’s options as above.
Choose Hide (phone bar and TV sheet) or Hide channel (phone guide sheet).

The channel disappears from your lists but stays on the device. What you hide belongs to your profile. On a Kids profile hiding asks for a parent’s PIN, and only a parent shows it again, from their own profile.

To show it again:

Phone: Settings → Categories, then Hidden channels, and Unhide. Or tap its category in the same screen and switch the channel back on.
Television, Windows, the Mac: Settings → Categories, OK on the category, then Show or hide single items. Unhide all channels at the top shows every hidden channel at once.

To hide a whole category instead, see Categories.

Renaming a channel

Open the channel’s options. On a phone tick one channel only.
Choose Rename.
Type the new name and confirm. On a phone the sheet is called Rename channel, on a television Rename title.

The new name shows everywhere the channel appears, the list, the guide, Home, search, and on your other devices too. To go back to the provider’s name, rename it again and leave the field empty.

How names are shown

Providers often start a name with a country or language code, as in UK: BBC One HD, |UK| BBC One, [BE] Eén or (PL) TVP 1 FHD. The app shows such a channel as BBC One, Eén or TVP 1: a code it recognises in front of the name is left out, and a quality mark such as HD, FHD or 4K becomes a small label next to the name. Nothing changes in your playlist, and there is no setting for it.

A tag it does not take for such a code, such as (V+) in (V+) BTV, stays part of the name. For those, and for any name you want different, use Rename. Category names can be renamed too, see Categories.

Where channel logos come from

A channel’s logo comes from your playlist. Where the playlist has none, the app uses the logo of the guide channel it is matched to, and a channel with no logo anywhere shows a tile with its initials.

Prefer channel logos from the guide, in Settings → EPG & Guide, uses the guide’s logo even when the playlist has one. Off by default.
Reassign EPG on a channel picks the guide channel it is matched to, and with it the logo the guide gives it.
An extra guide source with good logos can fill in the ones your provider lacks.

A logo cannot be replaced by hand for a single channel. How a logo sits on the page, with or without a tile behind it, is under Channel logos on a phone.

Pinning a channel to the top of its category

Pin to top of category on a TV, Pin in the phone bar, keeps the channel first in that category on every device. Unpin from top of category (TV) or Unpin (phone) puts it back. Pinned channels stay above the ones you move.

Moving channels

You can put channels in your own order inside a category, your favourites, your watchlist and each of your groups.

On a phone:

In Live, open the category with the sort set to Provider order and press and hold a channel. In Favorites or the Watchlist, tap the select button in the top corner instead.
Tap items to select · drag ≡ to reorder appears at the top.
Drag the ≡ handle of a row to its new place.

In a very long favourites list or watchlist the phone edits the first 500 items.

On a television, Windows, the Mac and LG or Samsung TVs:

Hold OK on the channel (right-click on a computer).
Choose Move in category, Move in favorites, Move in watchlist or Move in and the group’s name. If the list is sorted another way, the option says it switches to your own order.
Move with Up and Down. Hold the button and the channel keeps going, faster the longer you hold. The line at the bottom reads ▲▼ move · OK save · Back cancel.
Press OK to save, or Back to cancel.

Long favourites, watchlist and group lists can be moved in the same way. On Windows and the Mac you can also drag rows with the mouse in some screens, see Groups and your own order.

The order of favourites, the watchlist and your groups follows your account and is the same on every device and in the account panel.

Which changes follow your account

Change	Where it applies
Rename	Every device and every profile
Hide	Your profile, on every device
Pin to top of category	Every device
Order of favourites, watchlist and groups	Your profile, on every device and in the account panel
Favourites, groups	Your profile, on every device