IPTV Providers: How to Choose One in the UK

Search for an IPTV provider and you will find lists. Ranked tables, ten-best posts, forum threads where every recommendation is somebody's first post. Almost none of it tells you what to look at, which is a problem, because the things that separate one provider from another are not the things the lists compare.

We are one of them, so read this accordingly. What follows is the set of checks we would want somebody to run on us, written out rather than kept quiet.

The short answer

Judge a provider on what happens after you pay, not on what is on the sales page. Four things tell you most of it: whether you can reach a person before you buy, what the plan actually counts, what the refund window is, and whether they will tell you plainly what is not included.

Everything else is decoration. A lineup figure is unverifiable from outside, a testimonial is unverifiable from outside, and both are trivially easy to write.

Provider, supplier, reseller: three words, two meanings

You will see all three used for the same thing, and once for something different, so it is worth separating.

Provider and supplier mean the same thing in ordinary use. Neither is a technical term and neither tells you anything about size, quality or how long anyone has been operating.

A reseller is a different arrangement. A reseller buys access in bulk and sells it on under their own name. That is a legitimate way to run a business and we run a reseller programme ourselves. It matters to you only in one respect: your support conversation is with whoever sold to you, not necessarily with whoever runs the infrastructure. Ask which you are dealing with if it is not obvious.

The seven checks, in the order that saves the most trouble

1. Can you reach a person before you pay?

This is the one that predicts everything else, and it costs you a message to test.

Send a question that requires an actual answer rather than a price list. Ask whether a specific device works. Ask what happens if you cannot get it running. The answer tells you three things at once: whether anyone is there, how long they take, and whether they will engage with a question they cannot upsell into.

If nobody answers before you have paid, consider what the answer rate looks like after.

2. What does the plan actually count?

This is where most confusion lives and it is worth getting straight. Plans are usually sized one of two ways, and providers are not always clear about which.

Simultaneous connections means how many streams can play at the same moment. Install the app on as many devices as you like; the limit is how many are watching at once. That is how ours works, and the tiers on our plans page are counting connections rather than devices.

Devices means a fixed list of registered hardware, which is a different and more restrictive limit: a new telly can mean a new slot even though the old one is switched off.

Ask which one you are buying. The words are used loosely enough that you cannot infer it from the plan name.

3. What is the refund window, and is it written down anywhere?

A window that exists only in a chat message is not a window.

Ours is seven days and it is on our refund page rather than in a conversation. Whatever the provider, find the page. If there is no page, that is the answer.

4. Will they tell you what is not included?

The strongest signal in the whole list, and the rarest.

Everything has gaps. A provider willing to say "that one is not in the lineup, so do not buy on the strength of it" is a provider you can plan around. One that answers every question with yes is one you will find the gaps in yourself, after paying.

Ask about something specific you care about before you buy, and notice whether you get a straight answer or a redirection.

5. Which devices, named individually?

"Works on all devices" is not a device list.

A provider that supports a device properly can tell you which player app to use on it, and usually has a written guide. Ours are at setup guides, split by device rather than merged, because a smart TV and a streaming stick genuinely do not work the same way.

If the answer to "does it work on my telly" is yes with no follow-up question about which telly, nobody has checked.

6. What happens at renewal?

Ask directly whether anything renews on its own and what is stored.

We have no checkout, no stored card and nothing that renews by itself, which is a consequence of selling through a conversation rather than a payment form. That is not the only honest arrangement, but you should know which one you are in before rather than after.

7. Does the picture story hold up?

Resolution claims are cheap to make. What decides your actual picture is the stream, your connection, the device and the screen together, and a provider who explains that is more use than one who lists a resolution and stops. Our 4K guide sets out which of the four is usually the limit.

Questions worth sending, word for word

Copy these. The answers, and how long they take, are the review you cannot read anywhere.

• Does my exact device work, and which player app would I use on it?
• Does my plan limit simultaneous streams or registered devices?
• What is your refund window, and where is it written down?
• What is not in the lineup that people usually expect?
• Does anything renew automatically?
• If it will not start on setup night, what happens?

What we would not tell you to check

Two things that appear on every checklist and are worth less than they look.

Reviews. Anyone can write one, in either direction, and the incentive to do so is strongest at the extremes. A thread of strangers is not evidence about your household, your device or your connection.

Two providers' lineup figures, held up side by side. There is no shared definition of what counts as one, so two counts are two counting methods rather than two measurements of the same thing. It is the comparison that does not hold, rather than either figure.

Common questions

Is a bigger provider a safer provider?

Not reliably, and size is not observable from outside anyway. What you can observe is response time before you pay, whether policies are written down, and whether anyone will say no to you. Those are available in an afternoon.

Should I pay for a long term up front to get the lower rate?

Only after you have tested the thing you are actually buying, which is the support. A short term first costs a little more per month and tells you what a year of it would be like. Our terms are on the plans page.

What if I already subscribe somewhere and want to switch?

Nothing needs to happen at once. The players are separate apps and installing one does not disturb another, so you can run both until you are satisfied. Our setup guides cover the install on each device.

How do I know the answers I am given are true?

You do not, from one conversation, and nobody who tells you otherwise is being straight with you. What you can do is ask something checkable, then check it. Ask which player runs on your device, then look up whether that player exists on that platform. A provider that gets a verifiable answer wrong has told you something useful.

Still deciding?

Send us the questions above, including the awkward ones. If something you want is not in the lineup we would rather say so now than have you find out on the first evening, and it takes one message on WhatsApp to find out.