Guides and research

We measure the streams in this index rather than guessing about them, and publish what the measurements show. These pieces are written from first-party data: every figure comes from our own testing of the channels listed on this site.

That matters because almost everything written about free live television is written without access to the streams. Reliability is asserted rather than counted, and the advice that follows tends to be generic. We probe every address in the index each time it is rebuilt, record exactly how each one answers, and publish the distribution rather than the headline. Where the data contradicts the common assumption, as it does on picture quality and on which genres are actually abundant, we say so and show the counts.

Each piece below states its method and its limits. The largest limit is the same throughout: measurements are taken from one location at one time, so geographic blocking means a stream recorded as unreachable here may serve perfectly elsewhere. That is why no channel is removed for failing a check, and only a confirmed 404 or 410 takes one out of the index.