Your movies and series sit in a list, and your customers have to pick one every time. A 24/7 channel turns them into a real TV channel: it plays them one after another, 24 hours a day, and builds its own TV guide. Your customers see it in their apps like any other channel, with its category and its bouquets. It does not matter which of your servers holds each video, and it is free: it comes with your license.

24/7 Channels, step by step

New in Xtream AI 2.6.0. Requires engine 2.6.0 or newer (stable version) on your main server.

Requirements

  • Engine 2.6.0 or newer, stable version, on your main server. If 24/7 Channels and Ads are not in the Channels menu, update it first. See Update the Engine.
  • The servers that broadcast the channel also need a version that supports it. The panel tells you which ones do not.
  • Admins only. A limited admin needs the 24/7 channels permission in their member group (see Member Groups). Resellers do not have access.

How a 24/7 channel works

  • It runs on a clock, like real TV. The guide keeps moving even when nobody is watching. Someone who tunes in at 21:20 finds the movie exactly where the guide says (for example, at 1:30), not at the beginning.
  • It can use nothing while nobody watches. By default it turns on only when someone opens it, and the guide keeps running anyway.
  • The guide builds itself. Each program's name and time show up in your customers' apps.

The 24/7 Channels page

Open Channels > 24/7 Channels. At the top you see how many 24/7 channels you have, how many are on air, how many people are watching and how many need a look. Below are your channels, with the filters All, On air, To review and Drafts and a Search channel box.

Each card shows what plays now and what comes next, and its state:

  • On air: playing now, with the number of people watching. On air · with warnings: on air, but something needs a look.
  • Waiting for someone to watch: it turns on by itself when someone opens it. The guide keeps running.
  • Preparing: it is preparing its first videos and goes on air by itself when they are ready.
  • Paused: it shows your notice (see "Pause with a notice").
  • Draft: not on air yet. Keep building opens it, Discard throws it away.

The card buttons are View channel and Edit. The ⋯ menu has Turn off, Make a copy and Delete….

Create one in a minute

The fastest way is one of the Start quickly models:

  • A series nonstop: a whole series, season after season. It picks up where it left off.
  • Movies from a category: the movies of a category, shuffled, with no repeats until all of them have played.
  • Your latest uploads: your new movies. Each movie you upload joins by itself.
  • My own list: you choose each movie or episode and its order. What you upload later does not join by itself.
  • By time of day: different shows at different hours (for example, cartoons in the morning and movies at night). It opens the time slots page directly (see "Schedule by time of day").

Or click Create a 24/7 channel. In the New 24/7 channel window:

  1. Choose what plays: A series nonstop, Movies from a category, Your latest uploads or My own list, then pick the series, category or titles.
  2. Type a Name.
  3. Click Choose bouquets and tick at least one. Without a bouquet, no customer can see the channel.
  4. The rest comes ready: it looks Clean (the picture as it is) and it turns on when someone watches. Change any of it later in the editor.
  5. At the bottom the panel tells you whether it goes On air right away or first prepares some videos in the background.
  6. Click Create channel. It goes on air. You do not need to create the channel in Add Stream: the panel does it for you.

Customize before creating saves a draft and opens the full editor instead. Nothing goes on air until you click Create channel there.

The editor

Click Edit on a card (or Keep building on a draft). At the top is the channel name and the preview: the screen and the guide for Today, Tomorrow and the next days, exactly as they will air. The editor saves by itself while you work.

It has four sections: What plays, How it looks, Breaks and ads and Who watches it.

1. What plays

  • Add series, Add movies or Add categories opens Add content to the channel, with everything you have on all your servers:
    • Series: pick the series (and later which seasons).
    • Movies: one by one, with genre and year filters.
    • Whole categories: everything in them. What you add to the category later joins by itself.
    • By rule (updates itself): for example, movies added in the last 30 days, with filters such as year, rating, length, audio language, actor, director or categories.
  • In what order?:
    • In order: episode 1, 2, 3… Each series picks up where it left off.
    • Taking turns: a bit of each series, in turns.
    • Mixed: at random, without repeating until everything has played.
  • When you upload new episodes (or new movies): they play when their turn comes, right away once and then when their turn comes, or at the end of the round.
  • If the channel plays series and you want to add loose movies, the panel offers Put them in another time slot (recommended: new content keeps joining by itself) or Build a fixed list (you choose each item; new content no longer joins by itself).
  • More options (you do not need to touch them):
    • Protected hours for kids: for example, nothing rated 16+ from 06:00 to 22:00.
    • Nothing repeats before: 1 day, 3 days, 1 week or 1 month.
    • Something on an exact day and time: for example, a premiere on Saturday at 22:00.
    • Parts together, Maximum age of this content, Short video before / after each program and Start on round times.
    • Different schedule on certain dates, Channel time zone and Days of guide ahead.
    • Removed from this channel: what you took out of the channel, with Bring back.

Schedule by time of day

A real channel plays different things at different hours. In What plays, turn on Change the schedule by time of day: each row is a time slot (the days, the hours and what plays). See the week drawn opens the time slots page, with The week in colors and The time slots, in words. In a hurry? Start from a model: Kids' morning + movie night or Movie of the night at 22:00.

Click a slot to change it (or Add time slot):

  • Its name, Which days? (Copy to other days copies it) and the time it starts and ends.
  • What plays?:
    • Content: series, movies or categories, with their order.
    • Repeat another time slot: for example, repeat the night movies at dawn.
    • A live channel: one of your live channels, for example a match or the news. It needs the Full TV look. Any regular or on demand channel from your list works, but not a mosaic or another 24/7 channel. It runs a few seconds behind the original.
  • If another program is still playing when the slot starts: Start at … sharp (recommended: what does not fit is not scheduled, and a short gap is filled with your filler videos or the standby screen) or Wait for it to finish (the slot starts a few minutes late).

Time without a slot (gray in the week) plays the channel's usual content.

Below the week, Dates and events:

  • Something on a day and time: one program at an exact time, for example a premiere on Sunday at 22:00. Then the normal schedule continues.
  • Another schedule on certain dates: a different week for a range of dates, for example the holidays. The rest of the year keeps the usual week.

Click Done to go back to the editor.

2. How it looks

  • Clean: the picture as it is. Your server barely notices it. Recommended.
  • With my logo: your logo as a fixed watermark. Upload a still PNG, JPG, GIF or WebP image (up to 2 MB) and choose where it goes, its size and its intensity. Each video is prepared once with your logo; meanwhile the channel keeps airing as it was and switches by itself when everything is ready.
  • Full TV: logo, time, program name and "Up next", like a TV channel. It is drawn live on each server that broadcasts the channel, so it uses more processor. Only with Full TV you choose What to show on top (logo, time and date, program name, "Up next", age rating, your own text, a banner of your campaigns, a preview of what comes next), get subtitles and can show a live channel in a time slot. See a real photo of the channel shows a real picture taken by your server.

Also here: Audio language (and, under More options, a Second audio language and Subtitles), the Standby screen (its color and, with Full TV, its text, for example "We will be right back") and Videos for the gaps (short fillers you choose in Movies).

Switching to or from Full TV, or turning the second language on or off, restarts the channel once: viewers see a cut of a few seconds and their apps reconnect by themselves. The panel warns you before saving.

3. Breaks and ads

Optional.

  • Your videos every so often: your own short videos, such as a promo of your service, a channel ident or a renewal reminder. Add video and choose when it plays: After some programs, Every few minutes, Every hour on the hour or At set times. They do not appear in the guide.
  • Play my ad campaigns: turn it on and your campaigns from Channels > Ads play in this channel's breaks. Choose where the breaks go: Between programs (never interrupts a movie) or Every few minutes, also in the middle of movies. With no active campaigns there is no break: the next program starts right away.

4. Who watches it

  • Bouquets (who can see it): choose at least one. Customers whose package has that bouquet see the channel. Without a bouquet, nobody sees it. See Packages and Bouquets.
  • Icon in the channel list and Category.
  • Turned on: Only when someone watches (it uses nothing while nobody watches) or Always. Either way the guide keeps running, like on TV.
  • Server: your main server, or Choose other servers. Each server shows how much of the channel's content it already has, and every chosen server shows the same thing at the same time.

Saving changes: the 2-hour rule

The next 2 hours of a channel that is on air are already in your customers' guide, and they do not move. That is why the editor of a channel on air has two buttons:

  • Save · starts …: your changes start right after those 2 hours.
  • Save and apply from …: your changes start with the next program.

A new channel has Create channel (it goes on air) and Save without publishing (it stays a draft). See details opens Before going on air, a short checklist with a Fix it button where something needs attention. Drafts you do not touch for 90 days are deleted by themselves. You can have up to 200 24/7 channels and drafts.

Preparing videos

Some videos come in a format that not every device plays well. The channel prepares them once, in the background and in airing order, and keeps them. Each one uses at most a quarter of your server and waits if your server is encoding movies in Movies. A new channel goes on air anyway. If a video is not ready in time, the standby screen shows in its place, and then the channel continues where the clock says.

On the channel page, the Preparation tab shows how many are ready and how long is left, with the filters Preparing, Queued, Ready, With a problem and Removed. For each video: Retry, Do it first, Remove from channel…, Bring back to the channel and Open in Movies. Stop preparing what is pending… takes everything still pending out of the channel (you can bring it back from Removed).

The channel on air

Click View channel. At the top you see whether it is on air and how many people are watching, with Edit channel, Turn off and the ⋯ menu (Restart, Make a copy, Delete…). Below are what plays Now, what comes Next and the play button to watch it live in your browser. The tabs are Now and guide, Preparation and What aired and who watched.

What do you want to do?

  • Skip: move on now. Choose The whole program or Only what is airing (for example, a break). What follows moves earlier.
  • Play something now: a movie that is ready to air, Right now or At a time (up to 2 hours ahead). As a program shows in the guide and replaces what was there; As a break does not show in the guide.
  • Schedule: something on an exact day and time, beyond the next 2 hours, with an optional Name in the guide and Announce it in the guide as a premiere.
  • Pause with a notice: your text on screen instead of the program (one line, up to 200 characters, for example "Back in 10 minutes"). With Full TV your text shows; otherwise the standby screen shows. The guide keeps running: when you click Remove the pause, the channel continues where the clock says.

More:

  • Turn off: viewers stop seeing it, but the guide keeps running. When you turn it on, it appears at the point that matches that time.
  • In the guide, each row's menu has Stop playing this movie here… (or this episode, or this series). It takes it out of the channel; bring it back from What plays > More options > Removed from this channel.
  • If you saved changes for after the next 2 hours, a notice says when they start, and Apply from the next program brings them forward.
  • Delete… asks you to type the channel name. It cannot be undone.

What aired and who watched lists what aired and how many people watched each program, for Yesterday, Today, Last 7 days or dates you pick (up to 14 days, from the last 90). Filter by server and result (Aired, Nobody was watching, Standby screen, Skipped, Failed), see the Most watched and Download it all. A program that aired with nobody watching used nothing.

Ads (Channels > Ads)

Sell ads to advertisers and play them in the breaks of the 24/7 channels that have Play my ad campaigns turned on. Open Channels > Ads and click New campaign:

  1. Name and ads: a name and one or more videos, chosen with Choose a video from Movies (Upload a new video adds a new one). Several videos take turns. A video you use as an ad stops showing as a movie in your customers' apps.
  2. On which channels?: All, or the ones you choose.
  3. When?: From and Until (empty means right away and no end date), All day or Only at certain times.
  4. How many times?: Per hour, Per day or No frequency (it fills the breaks the other campaigns leave free), with an optional Total cap.
  5. Banner (optional): an image over the program on channels with Full TV.

A new or resumed campaign never starts before 2 hours, because the next 2 hours are already in the guide. Each campaign card shows whether it is Active, Paused, starts or ended on a date, how many times it aired and how many views it had.

The report shows how many times your ads aired with people watching and how many views they had, by ad, by channel, by day or by server. Airings with nobody watching, or with the standby screen, do not count. Download for the advertiser gives you the proof for your advertiser.

Ask the Copilot

Click Build it with the Copilot (or the Copilot buttons on the channel and editor screens) and ask in one sentence, for example "Make a 24/7 channel with my action movies, Full TV look, nothing 16+ before 22:00". The Copilot first builds a draft and shows you the plan. Creating, applying changes, skipping, pausing or stopping the preparation always shows a confirmation card, and nothing happens until you say yes. See Copilot.

Elsewhere in the panel

  • In Channels > Overview, a 24/7 channel has a 24/7 tag, and the status filter has ● 24/7 channels.
  • What it plays, its guide, its category, bouquets and servers are managed in 24/7 Channels, not in Edit Stream.
  • In a Mass Edit, 24/7 channels keep their source, on demand, transcoding and guide settings.
  • If you delete a movie, episode or series that a 24/7 channel or a campaign uses, the panel warns you first and tells you where and when it airs.

Common problems

  • A customer cannot see the channel: check that it has at least one bouquet in Who watches it, and that the bouquet is in the customer's package.
  • The channel shows a black screen, "We will be right back" or a still image: that is the standby screen. A video is not ready or could not be prepared. Open the Preparation tab, filter With a problem and click Retry. If it fails again, check the file in Movies.
  • A card says "On air · with warnings" or the channel is in To review: click View and fix, or Have the Copilot review it.
  • My changes do not show yet: the next 2 hours are already in the guide. Use Apply from the next program on the channel page.
  • I do not see 24/7 Channels in the menu: update your main server to engine 2.6.0 or newer (stable). If it is already updated, check that your member group has the 24/7 channels permission.
  • "These servers need an update to broadcast 24/7 channels": update those servers, or broadcast without them. If the warning is about the logo, the time on screen, the subtitles or the second language, you can also switch to Clean.
  • "Another channel already uses that name.": channel names must be unique in your panel.