iptv-org/iptv: GitHub's largest index of public IPTV channels

A collection of publicly available IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) channels from around the world: a database of live streams with over 12,000 channels in the main playlist, backed by a 40,000+ channel database, a public API, a program-guide (EPG) system, and thousands of dependent repos and apps. As of August 31, 2026 it carries 137,193 stars.

---

What it is

iptv-org/iptv is a GitHub repository that the iptv-org organization describes as “Collection of publicly available IPTV channels from all over the world.” It isn’t a player or a streaming service — it’s an index of links to video streams that are already publicly broadcast on the web. The README is explicit: “No video files are stored in this repository. The repository simply contains user-submitted links to publicly available video stream URLs.”

Usage is direct: paste the link to any of the playlists (in M3U format) into any video player that supports live streaming (the README shows a VLC example) and play it. The main playlist, https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u, contained 12,881 channels when downloaded on August 31, 2026, with tvg-id, tvg-logo, and group-title metadata on each entry, and in some cases an http-user-agent attribute the player must respect.

The project is the core of a constellation of repos under the same organization (channel database, EPG, API, resource list) that together function as a “knowledge base” for global television, as the contribution guide itself puts it: “iptv-org is more than just a repository for sharing links to live streams… it has evolved into a knowledge base for channels, streams, and program guides.”

Origin

• The repository was created on November 14, 2018 (GitHub API), amid the rise of community M3U lists following the spread of FAST services (Pluto TV, Peacock, etc.) that published legitimate, free streams.
• The main maintainer is freearhey (Aleksandr Statciuk, a GitHub user since 2014), with 8,485 contributions to the repository, far ahead of the runner-up (BellezaEmporium, 4,607).
• The project has been through several documented legal episodes:
  • February 2022: the site/playlist was temporarily “banned” on GitHub, per a Hacker News post (“IPTV-org’s GitHub database got banned,” February 2, 2022, 2 points).
  • February 2023: the repository was taken down by GitHub (“DMCA Takedown of iptv-org/iptv on GitHub,” HN thread id 34951214, February 27, 2023, 85 points and 74 comments). During that same period, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) sent a DMCA notice (dated February 14, 2023) against another repository hosting a Pluto TV playlist (PlutoTV_mr.m3u); TorrentFreak documented that the MPA considered even playlists pointing to official Pluto TV sources illegal, citing Columbia Pictures v. Fung (isoHunt) as precedent for contributory liability. The iptv-org repository was later restored.
  • November 2023: Spanish football league LaLiga sent Google a deindexation request (dated November 20, 2023) covering over 1,100 URLs, of which the first 18 concerned the iptv-org repository, alleging it “sells channel services or subscriptions to servers that provide decryption keys” — an accusation TorrentFreak (Andy Maxwell, November 23, 2023) called “hard to fathom,” given the project only accepts donations via OpenCollective.
• TorrentFreak’s November 2023 article dubs it “the world’s largest free IPTV repo” and notes the repository “regularly” appeared trending on GitHub.

Philosophy and principles

Verifiable principles from the README, FAQ, and contribution guide:

• Only links to public streams: the project doesn’t store content and states the links point to streams “intentionally made publicly by the copyright holders.” That’s why the README argues linking “doesn’t directly infringe copyright, since no copy is made,” and that a DMCA against GitHub over that “isn’t a valid reason.”
• Index what already exists, host nothing: the project’s legal angle is precisely that its goal is to “index streams that are already publicly available” (TorrentFreak).
• Stability over volume: the FAQ explains why links to Xtream Codes servers are rejected (“tend to be very unstable, and often links to them fail very quickly”), along with tokenized links or ones with unnecessary redirects.
• Community-verifiable data: every stream must be identified by a stream ID linking it to the iptv-org/database; “A request without a valid stream ID or a working stream link will be closed immediately.”
• Automated maintenance: a GitHub action (update.yml) and a bot (iptv-bot) update /streams and PLAYLISTS.md daily ([Bot] Update /streams commits visible in the history).
• Public domain: Unlicense / CC0 licensing for all data.
• Explicit limits: no VOD (“Are you planning to include VOD? No”), no NSFW channels since January 30, 2024 (issue #15723), and only radio with a video component (“visual radio”) is accepted.

How it works

1. Stream submission: the community proposes links via issue forms (add / edit / report a broken stream) or a direct pull request to the playlist files. Before publishing, the contributor must verify: the link isn’t a duplicate, it’s stable, it’s not Xtream Codes, it’s not tokenized, it goes straight to the broadcast without redirects, the channel exists in the database, and it’s not on the blocklist (verifiable at iptv-org.github.io).
2. Validation and enrichment: each stream’s description (name, logo, categories, language, broadcast area) is loaded from iptv-org/database using the tvg-id. Fixing the ID fixes the description “across all repositories.”

3. Playlist generation: an automated pipeline (TypeScript/Node, with tests/, m3u-linter.json, and GitHub Actions) regenerates every variant from the /streams folder:
   • index.m3u — every channel (12,881 as of 08/31/2026).
   • index.category.m3u and categories/<cat>.m3u — 32 categories (General 2,680, News 977, Entertainment 866, Movies 739, Music 739, Religious 776, Sports 456, Kids 378, etc.).
   • index.language.m3u and languages/<code>.m3u — hundreds of languages (English 2,975, Spanish 2,260, French 459, Russian 586, Portuguese 468, Arabic 356, …).
   • index.country.m3u, countries/<cc>.m3u, subdivisions/<cc>-<sub>.m3u, and cities/<id>.m3u — a country → subdivision → city hierarchy (e.g. countries/es.m3u, subdivisions/br-sp.m3u, cities/brsao.m3u).

4. Consumption: any M3U-compatible player (VLC, Kodi, TiviMate, web players, TVHeadend, etc.) opens the URL directly; there’s no registration or token.
5. Supplementary data: the API (iptv-org.github.io/api/*.json) exposes channels.json (40,870 channels with id, name, network, owners, country, categories, launch/close dates), feeds.json (44,862), guides.json (180,681), streams, categories, languages, countries, blocklist, and more.

The ecosystem

Repositories under the iptv-org organization (GitHub API, August 31, 2026)

Repository	Stars	Role
iptv-org/iptv	137,193	Stream playlists (this report)
iptv-org/awesome-iptv	12,355	Curated list of IPTV resources; now organized as GitHub Discussions categories (players by platform: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox…; providers; tools)
iptv-org/epg	3,260	Program guides (EPG): Node.js scripts that scrape guides from hundreds of sites into guide.xml (XMLTV), with Docker
iptv-org/database	1,634	User-editable TV channel database, in CSV under /data (40,870 records via API)
iptv-org/iptv-org.github.io	967	The iptv-org.github.io website (channel search with streams:>0 filter)
iptv-org/api	808	Documentation for the public JSON API
iptv-org/sdk	11	@iptv-org/sdk v1.5.0, a JavaScript library for querying the API
iptv-org/community	5	A community repository with no description

Derivatives and projects consuming iptv-org (GitHub searches, August 31, 2026)

• IPTV-CN/IPTV (217 stars): a Chinese-language project based on iptv-org/iptv, “仅供我个人使用” (personal use only).
• chengxue2020/feiyang-IPTV-org (190 stars): a Chinese 4K/8K playlist derived from iptv-org’s format.
• TNT-Likely/xplayer (167 stars): a multiplatform IPTV/M3U player (Android, Android TV, iOS, iPad, macOS, Windows) with “built-in iptv-org sources” — an example of an app adopting the collection as a default source.
• gitlab.com/MineCommander/iptv: a mirror of the collection on GitLab, cited as an alternative after the February 2023 takedown (comment by rajishx in HN thread 34951214).
• On Reddit (via the PullPush index) there are plenty of practical integration threads: r/NOBS_IPTV (“TVheadend and iptv-org’s .m3u with ffmpeg MPEG-TS transcode”), r/PleX (“Help with IPTV Plex and xteve,” t3_1cqlm6e), r/JellyfinCommunity (“Live tv not working,” t3_1k8fb6x), r/kodi (t3_1emmx5u, blank channel names), r/TiviMate (t3_1fnvkw2 “Complete noob at TiviMate… best method, paid or free” and others), r/dreamingspanish (t3_1ipkyf3 “Free Spanish TV,” 35 points, 6 comments), and r/StremioAddons (t3_1k7b35a “[News] DryK1llLogic’s update,” 549 points, 143 comments, which mentions iptv-org).
• No complete translations of the project into other languages were found; the derivatives are localized playlists (like the Chinese ones above) or apps.

Official / semi-official status

• No official standard status: no vendor designation or formal institutional adoption was found in the retrieved sources.
• A de facto standard in practice: it’s the largest public IPTV collection and the reference other projects cite and embed: xplayer integrates its sources by default; TVHeadend, Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi, and TiviMate use it in their community threads; dozens of YouTube videos take it as a starting point; specialized press (TorrentFreak) treats it as “the” free IPTV repository.
• Semi-official funding: it accepts donations and lists backers on OpenCollective (opencollective.com/iptv-org), confirming a model with no commercial sponsors — relevant against LaLiga’s allegation that it “sells subscriptions” (TorrentFreak, 11/23/2023).
• Permanent legal risk: the history of takedowns (2022, 02/2023, the 11/2023 deindexation request) and the MPA’s position that “playlists too constitute infringement” (TorrentFreak article on PlutoTV_mr.m3u, 02/2023) form the project’s structural context.

Quick-start guide

Installation and first run

There’s nothing to install: any M3U/HLS-compatible player works.

1. Open a player (the README uses VLC as an example).
2. In VLC: Media → Open Network Stream (Ctrl+N) and paste the playlist URL.
3. Wait for the channel list to load and play. index.m3u gets you all 12,881 channels at once (comment from Bluecobra on HN: “you can trawl through the whole list, pretty neat!”); if the web interface or the full list is overwhelming, it’s worth starting with a smaller playlist (see below).

Common workflows

• To watch only channels from your country: use https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/countries/es.m3u (Spain), /countries/cn.m3u (China), etc. In VLC, open that URL instead of index.m3u.
• To watch a specific topic: https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/categories/sports.m3u (456 channels), /news.m3u (977), /kids.m3u (378), etc.
• To watch channels in a language: https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/languages/spa.m3u (2,260 in Spanish), /eng.m3u (2,975), /zho.m3u (208 Chinese).
• To add program guides (EPG): from the iptv-org/epg repository:

  git clone --depth 1 -b master https://github.com/iptv-org/epg.git
  cd epg
  npm install
  npm run grab --- --sites=example.com

  The result is a guide.xml (XMLTV) loaded into the player/server alongside the playlist. Documented options: --lang, --timeout, --delay, --proxy, --maxConnections, --gzip, --json.
• To locate a channel’s ID or check if it has streams: search for it at https://iptv-org.github.io (the FAQ recommends the streams:>0 parameter in the search bar).
• To script against or query the data: use the API, e.g. curl https://iptv-org.github.io/api/channels.json (40,870 channels) or the @iptv-org/sdk library in Node.js/JavaScript.

Essential configuration

There are no project-specific config files; the “settings” a new user touches are:

1. The playlist URL the player loads: choose between index.m3u and the country/category/language variants depending on the desired size.
2. The player’s http-user-agent support: several entries in index.m3u carry the http-user-agent="..." attribute; players that don’t honor it will see those channels fail.
3. The XMLTV guide (guide.xml) attached to the playlist in the player/server, generated with iptv-org/epg.
4. The player’s own geo/VPN filter: many streams are IP-restricted (see pitfalls).
5. The playlist’s reload frequency in the player: the repository updates daily via bot, so reloading daily recovers new or removed links.

Common pitfalls and fixes

• Broken or dead channels: the most common and structural problem (external streams expire). Documented fix: report the broken link with the repository’s Broken stream form; “as soon as a working replacement appears, we will add it to the playlist or at least remove the non-working one.” The bot cleans up and updates daily.
• Geo-restrictions: many streams only work from the country of origin (comment from CaptainOfCoit in HN thread 40198326: “A lot of these streams are geo-restricted (based on IP)… It’s not a 100% sure, free and easy way to view the content”). There’s no fix on the repo’s side; it depends on the user’s IP.
• “Basically doesn’t work”: a real criticism from Manchuus in the same HN thread (“Basically no channels work, either DNS issues or requires creating accounts/payments”); rickreynoldssf adds “Crashes my browser.” In practice, the success rate varies by country and player; hscontinuity and Bluecobra confirm VLC “works a charm.”
• Inflated figures in tutorials: CLI Stack’s video “125K FREE TV Channels?!” (8:52, ~356 views) puts the channel count at 125,000; the real playlist held 12,881 as of 08/31/2026 (the 125,000 figure appears to reference the historical channel database, not live streams). Don’t use that figure.
• Rejected contribution links: Xtream Codes, tokenized, or redirecting links aren’t accepted (FAQ and CONTRIBUTING.md); forms without a valid stream ID or a working link “will be closed immediately.”
• NSFW content gone: since 01/30/2024, XXX channels aren’t distributed (issue #15723); if an old playlist carried them, that’s no longer official behavior.
• Blank channel names in Kodi (r/kodi thread t3_1emmx5u): usually caused by poorly resolved IDs or logos; fixing the stream’s tvg-id or the database entry is the documented fix.

Integrations and migration

• Home TV servers: TVHeadend (r/NOBS_IPTV thread with MPEG-TS transcoding via ffmpeg over iptv-org’s m3u), Plex with xteve (r/PleX thread t3_1cqlm6e), Jellyfin (r/JellyfinCommunity).
• Players: VLC (official README), Kodi (r/kodi), TiviMate on Android/Android TV (several r/TiviMate threads), xplayer (167 stars, iptv-org sources built in), Linux Mint’s Hypnotix (mentioned by arprocter on HN as a “mixed bag”).
• App development: the JSON API + @iptv-org/sdk (v1.5.0) enables building custom clients; iptv-org/awesome-iptv’s catalog of players and tools (12,355 stars) functions as a per-platform directory.
• Migration from third-party playlists: after the February 2023 takedown, users moved to mirrors like gitlab.com/MineCommander/iptv or to iptv-org itself; migrating to this repo just means changing the playlist URL in the player (same M3U format). Migrating to paid services (Xtream Codes, premium IPTV) is the opposite path, one the FAQ itself discourages due to Xtream link instability.

Current metrics

Measured on August 31, 2026 via the GitHub API:

Metric	Value
Stars	137,193
Forks	7,951
Watchers/subscribers	2,382
Open issues + PRs	85 (the GitHub API counts issues and PRs together in open_issues_count)
Primary language	TypeScript (pipeline scripts and tests)
License	Unlicense (CC0)
Created	November 14, 2018
Last push	August 31, 2026, 00:20 UTC
Latest commits	[Bot] Update /streams and [Bot] Update PLAYLISTS.md (daily, by iptv-bot)
Formal releases	None (the releases endpoint is empty; the project doesn’t use version tags)

Top contributors (GitHub API, 08/31/2026):

User	Contributions
freearhey (Aleksandr Statciuk)	8,485
BellezaEmporium	4,607
iptv-bot[bot]	3,510
Dum4G	2,573
UltraHDR	1,039
sguinetti	998
jkemp814	967
Carlinhos027	961
Alstruit	750
Sphinxroot	438

Content data (iptv-org API, 08/31/2026): 40,870 channels in the database (top countries: US 14,504, India 1,274, Canada 1,046, Russia 895, Brazil 820, Germany 771, China 749); 44,862 feeds; 180,681 guides (EPG); 12,881 channels in the main playlist.

Community reception

Hacker News (specific anchors)

• Thread 34951214 — “DMCA Takedown of iptv-org/iptv on GitHub” (02/27/2023, submitted by burundi_coffee, 85 points, 74 comments). Named opinions:
  • bm3719: “I’ve had a game server emulator project DMCA-ed previously, and my team’s casual research couldn’t come up with any solutions” — asking for a viable recourse against a takedown.
  • than3: criticizes the project’s lack of a fast response (“9 days with no response, is a surefire way to force any professional group off your host”).
  • lxe: “This is a collection of publicly available TV streams from all over the world. What could possibly be there that violates DMCA?” — skepticism about the reason.
  • boomboomsubban: “Github posts their DMCA claims, and I’m not seeing one for iptv” — can’t find a published DMCA notice for iptv.
  • lysp: connects the incident to earlier takedowns (the TorrentFreak article on the MPA’s DMCA against Pluto TV playlists).
  • mangatmodi: highlights the README’s legal section (“No video files are stored in this repository…”) and notes the DMCA claim “could be… fraud.”
  • rajishx: shares the first mirror that appeared: gitlab.com/MineCommander/iptv.
  • 1317 (critical): “well yeah, a list of dodgy tv streams, most of which aren’t authorised by the channels, is bound to get taken down eventually.”
  • f0ld: nostalgia (“I was enjoying watching local tourism & attraction channel called BeachTV. It was comfy. It’s sad it’s gone now”).
• Thread 40198326 — “Collection of publicly available IPTV channels” (04/29/2024, submitted by keepamovin linking the iptv-org.github.io site, 99 points, 25 comments). Named opinions:
  • CaptainOfCoit: a legal caveat — “A lot of these streams are geo-restricted… It’s not a 100% sure, free and easy way to view the content.”
  • Manchuus (critical): “Basically no channels work, either DNS issues or requires creating accounts/payments.”
  • rickreynoldssf (critical): “Crashes my browser :(.”
  • Bluecobra (practical praise): “If you use this main playlist link from the Github repo in VLC you can trawl through the whole list, pretty neat!”
  • arprocter: suggests Linux Mint’s Hypnotix, “a mixed bag of working and not working streams.”
  • hscontinuity: “Using VLC works a charm.”
• Thread 21904767 — “Publicly available IPTV channels from all over the world” (12/29/2019, submitted by DarkManZero, 50 points, 2 comments): k_sze observes “The number of channels in China (or in Chinese), compared to other countries, is mind-boggling”; m-p-3 wishes for stable URLs for Canadian OTA channels to build “a basic and legal IPTV box.”
• Thread 38396996 — “Google Asked to Deindex Iptv-Org, the Largest Free IPTV Repo” (11/23/2023, submitted by gslin, 15 points, 0 comments), about the TorrentFreak article on LaLiga.
• Thread 30256112 — “IPTV-org’s GitHub database got banned” (02/08/2022, 2 points), from the 2022 ban episode.

Reddit

Reddit’s discourse is mostly practical, within player and server subreddits (titles retrieved via the PullPush index):

• r/dreamingspanish, t3_1ipkyf3 “Free Spanish TV” (35 points, 6 comments, 2025): using the Spanish playlist to learn the language.
• r/StremioAddons, t3_1k7b35a “[News] DryK1llLogic’s update” (549 points, 143 comments): a Stremio add-on update referencing iptv-org as a source.
• r/NOBS_IPTV: TVHeadend threads using iptv-org’s m3u with ffmpeg transcoding.
• r/PleX t3_1cqlm6e (“Help with IPTV Plex and xteve”), r/JellyfinCommunity t3_1k8fb6x (“Live tv not working”), r/kodi t3_1emmx5u (“channels don’t display names correctly”), r/TiviMate t3_1fnvkw2 (“Complete noob at TiviMate… paid or free”), and r/TVheadend t3_v8tiu5: typical setup questions, with no large “launch” thread — the community treats it as an assumed resource, not news.

YouTube / video

• “Watching Free TV with IPTV: Is It Legal?” — El Rincón de Cabra (Spanish-language channel, verified), 729,000 views, 2 years ago: explains the IPTV protocol and the legal implications of M3U lists.
• “Create your IPTV | m3u8 playlists | Hacking | Cybersecurity” — Matías Vergara, 130,000 views, 10 months ago (in Spanish): how m3u8 playlists work from scratch.
• “125K FREE TV Channels?! Complete IPTV-org Tutorial (Cut the Cord)” — CLI Stack, ~356 views, 2 months ago: a full tutorial (the 125,000-channel figure is inflated versus the ~12,881 real total, see pitfalls).
• “Free 8000 IPTV Playlist Worldwide GitHub” — Roblox Dude, 95,000 views, 2 years ago.
• Short “This Free GitHub Repo Replaces $73/mo YouTube TV — iptv-org” — 4,100 views: the dominant marketing angle for the repo on social media.
• “Top FREE IPTV Playlist - Where to Get Fresh, Legal M3U Links in 2026” — QuickFix Digital, 1,300 views, 7 days ago.
• “Github 2026: iptv-org/iptv: The World’s Largest Open-Source IPTV Collection” — GitTrend, 8:27.

Specialized press

• TorrentFreak (Andy Maxwell): two reference articles — the MPA’s DMCA against Pluto TV playlists (February 2023) and LaLiga’s deindexation request against iptv-org (11/23/2023), which describes the repo as a library of “8,000 TV channels or more” (a figure lower than the current ~12,881) “available to users in seconds, and totally free.”

iptv-org vs. similar projects

Only comparisons with real projects retrieved in this research:

Alternative	Relationship to iptv-org
Pluto TV playlist repositories (e.g. PlutoTV_mr.m3u)	The target of the MPA’s DMCA (02/2023, reported by TorrentFreak). Smaller and focused on a single FAST service; iptv-org indexes thousands of sources and has a database and EPG. The MPA case illustrates the legal risk of this type of project generally.
Community mirrors (gitlab.com/MineCommander/iptv)	Copies of iptv-org created after the takedowns; same content, without the maintenance pipeline or the database.
Xtream Codes (paid IPTV services with an Xtream portal)	The category iptv-org explicitly rejects in the FAQ for instability. Paid IPTV generally offers more channels and quality, but at a cost and with greater legal risk; iptv-org’s angle is being free and public-links-only.
Players with their own list (Linux Mint’s Hypnotix, apps like xplayer)	Consume (or don’t) iptv-org’s list: xplayer integrates it as a default source (167 stars); Hypnotix was tested by the HN community with “mixed” results.
Official FAST services (Pluto TV, Peacock)	Not direct competitors (they’re the source of many of the indexed streams), but they offer a single brand’s legal content with official apps, versus iptv-org’s global but unstable coverage.

No other channel database with the same structure (channel → stream → guide) competing head-on was identified in the retrieved sources; the “largest free IPTV repo” position (TorrentFreak) has no documented rival at the same scale.

How to contribute

The repository documents a contribution process in CONTRIBUTING.md (“iptv-org is more than just a repository… it has evolved into a knowledge base… we must follow strict structural requirements”):

1. Add a stream: two routes — a streams:add issue form (“Add: …”), or a direct pull request to the playlist files (structure in .github/docs/playlist-structure.md). Mandatory pre-checklist: no duplicates, a stable link, not Xtream Codes, not tokenized, no redirects, the channel exists in the database, and it isn’t on the blocklist. Note geo-restrictions or periodic interruptions.
2. Fix descriptions: edit the stream’s tvg-id (via the streams:edit form) or fix the entry in iptv-org/database; “the stream description will automatically update across all repositories.”
3. Report a broken stream: the streams:remove form; it’s replaced or removed once a working alternative appears.
4. Add/edit channels: done in the sibling repository iptv-org/database (issue forms 01_channels_add.yml and its own CONTRIBUTING), not in this repo.
5. Financial support: donations via OpenCollective (opencollective.com/iptv-org).
6. The pipeline includes tests/ and an M3U linter (m3u-linter.json); the iptv-bot applies the daily updates.

Use cases

• Fee-free home TV: users setting up home TV with a player (VLC, Kodi, TiviMate, xplayer) who want free live channels: the per-country playlist (countries/es.m3u) plus VLC covers the entry case; r/TiviMate and r/kodi threads show it’s the resource the community reaches for when asking “where do I get free channels?”
• Diaspora wanting TV from home: playlists by language and country (2,260 channels in Spanish, 208 in Chinese, 749 channels with country CN) and threads like “Free Spanish TV” on r/dreamingspanish, or k_sze’s observation on HN about the abundance of Chinese channels, point to this use case: emigrants seeking familiar signals, subject to the applicable geo-restriction.
• Media-server admins (TVHeadend, Plex, Jellyfin): iptv-org’s m3u as a stream source, combined with the iptv-org/epg grabber to generate the XMLTV those servers need; r/NOBS_IPTV (with ffmpeg) and r/PleX (with xteve) threads document exactly that combination.
• App and prototype developers: the JSON API (40,870 channels with network, owner, launch/close-date metadata; 44,862 feeds; 180,681 guides) and @iptv-org/sdk allow building clients, aggregators, or “live channels” features without standing up infrastructure; xplayer (167 stars) is an example of an app already integrating it by default.
• Research, journalism, and TV data: the iptv-org/database (CSV, CC0, with local-language alt_names, owners, launched, closed, replaced_by) is a source of structured data on TV channels worldwide, useful for media studies or verification.
• Streaming education: Spanish-language videos from El Rincón de Cabra (729,000 views) and Matías Vergara (130,000 views) use the collection to explain how IPTV works, the m3u8 format, and the legal implications — a real didactic use case.
• Who is NOT the audience: anyone looking for premium sports, PPV, or channels that don’t broadcast openly (the project only indexes public streams, doesn’t accept Xtream Codes, and excludes NSFW since 01/2024); for that, the community’s own threads point to paid services, outside iptv-org’s scope.

Resources

• Repository: https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv
• Documentation: https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/README.md · https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/PLAYLISTS.md · https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/FAQ.md · https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
• Site / channel database: https://iptv-org.github.io (streams:>0 filter in the search bar)
• API: https://github.com/iptv-org/api · endpoints at https://iptv-org.github.io/api/*.json
• EPG: https://github.com/iptv-org/epg
• Official SDK: @iptv-org/sdk (v1.5.0) on npm — https://www.npmjs.com/package/@iptv-org/sdk
• Resource list: https://github.com/iptv-org/awesome-iptv (players, providers, and tools by platform)
• Community: the organization’s GitHub Discussions — https://github.com/orgs/iptv-org/discussions (no public Discord found in the sources consulted)
• Donations / backers: OpenCollective — https://opencollective.com/iptv-org
• Hacker News threads: DMCA takedown (85 pts, 74 cmts) · Playlist collection (99 pts, 25 cmts) · LaLiga deindexation · 2019 channels thread
• Relevant Reddit threads: r/dreamingspanish “Free Spanish TV” · r/StremioAddons DryK1llLogic update · integration threads in r/NOBS_IPTV, r/PleX, r/JellyfinCommunity, r/kodi, r/TiviMate
• Press: TorrentFreak — Google Asked to Deindex Iptv-Org (11/23/2023) · TorrentFreak — MPA and Pluto TV playlists (02/2023)
• Official blog or changelog: there’s no dedicated blog; the effective “changelog” is the daily [Bot] Update /streams commits and the empty releases (a project with no versions).

---

Note: this article draws on the README, the FAQ, CONTRIBUTING.md, the GitHub API, the iptv-org API, Hacker News and Reddit threads, YouTube videos, and TorrentFreak articles, consulted on August 31, 2026. Figures change over time.