How to Organise IPTV Channels: Favourites, Groups and Hidden Channels

A typical IPTV playlist can contain thousands of channels across hundreds of groups — most of which you’ll never watch. Organising them is the single biggest improvement you can make to day-to-day IPTV: menus get faster, the guide loads quicker and finding the channel you want takes seconds. This guide shows how to organise IPTV channels in any player.

Start with a plan

Before you touch any settings, spend two minutes deciding:

• Which groups you actually watch — for example your country’s channels, news, sport and a film group.
• Your “top 20” channels for a favourites list.
• Whether anyone else uses the TV — children, guests — and which groups should be locked.

This turns a long job into a short one.

Step 1: Hide groups you never watch

Hiding is the most effective step. In most players, open the channel list, highlight a group and choose Hide (or open the playlist’s group settings and untick groups).

• Hide whole groups first — it’s much faster than hiding channels one by one.
• Keep a broad group visible if you’re unsure; you can always hide it later.
• Hidden groups usually stop loading guide data too, which speeds up the EPG.

Hiding doesn’t delete anything. Your playlist is unchanged; the player simply doesn’t show those groups.

Step 2: Build a favourites list

Favourites give you a short list that behaves like a traditional TV.

1. Open a channel or highlight it in the list.
2. Use the Add to favourites option — often a long press of OK or a star icon.
3. Repeat for your top channels.
4. Open the Favourites group and reorder channels so the most-watched come first.

Many players let you channel-surf within favourites using channel up/down, which makes zapping fast.

Step 3: Reorder and renumber

Most players can sort channels by:

• Provider order — the order in the playlist,
• Number — useful if your provider assigns channel numbers,
• Name — alphabetical.

Some players also let you renumber channels so your favourites sit at 1, 2, 3 — handy if you like typing channel numbers on the remote.

Step 4: Lock what shouldn’t be easy to reach

Use the player’s parental PIN to lock adult groups or individual channels. On a shared TV, combine the player’s lock with the device’s own restrictions. Our guide to parental controls on streaming apps covers device and app settings in more detail.

Step 5: Tidy the guide

• Hide channels without guide data if your player offers it, so the grid only shows channels with programme information.
• Keep fewer days of guide data on small devices.
• Match stray channels manually to the right guide entries.

Player-specific tips

• TiviMate: group visibility and favourites are managed from the playlist and channel menus; Premium adds more favourites management. See our TiviMate setup guide.
• IPTV Smarters: use the category list to hide categories and the star icon for favourites.
• OTT Navigator: offers detailed sorting and grouping options per provider.
• Kodi: create your own channel groups in TV → Channels.
• Smart TV apps: some let you choose visible groups on the developer’s website as well as on the TV.

Organising for a family

If several people share one TV, a single favourites list rarely suits everyone. Depending on your player:

• Multiple favourites lists let you create separate lists such as “News”, “Kids” and “Sport”.
• Profiles (in players that offer them) give each person their own favourites and settings.
• Locked groups keep children away from adult content while leaving the rest of the list open.

A simple approach that works in almost any player: one shared favourites list of everyday channels, plus locked groups for anything unsuitable.

Channel numbers and the remote

If you’re used to typing channel numbers, renumbering pays off. Put your favourites at 1–20 in the order you used on cable or satellite, and leave gaps (for example 30 for films, 50 for sport) so you can add channels later without renumbering everything. Check whether your player keeps custom numbers after a playlist refresh; some reset to the provider’s numbering.

Should you edit the M3U file instead?

It’s possible to open an M3U playlist in a text editor and delete lines, but it’s rarely a good idea:

• A saved, edited copy doesn’t update when your provider adds or moves channels.
• Editing mistakes can break the whole list.
• The file contains your login details, so copies are a privacy risk.

Use the player’s tools and keep using your provider’s original link. Our guide to M3U playlists explains why the link matters. Some providers also let you choose which categories appear in your playlist from their own website — a cleaner option if it’s available.

Keep it tidy after updates

Providers add, rename and remove channels over time. To keep your setup tidy:

• Check new groups occasionally and hide those you don’t need.
• Re-check favourites if a channel stops working — it may have moved to a new ID.
• Back up player settings where the app supports it, so a reinstall doesn’t wipe your work.

A practical example

A household with a 6,000-channel playlist watches about 30 channels. In fifteen minutes they:

1. Hide 180 of 200 groups, keeping their country, news, sport and films.
2. Add 25 favourites and order them like their old TV line-up.
3. Lock the adult group with a PIN.
4. Reduce guide data to three days.

The guide now opens in seconds, and everyone finds their channels without scrolling.

The bottom line

Hide groups first, build a short favourites list, reorder it the way you think, lock what needs locking and keep the guide lean. Do it inside the player — not by editing the playlist — and your setup stays tidy even as your provider updates the channel list.