EasyPlayTV

A Kodi video add-on providing UK live TV channels and on-demand content from BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, Sky News, STV Player, and Blaze — all self-contained with no external plugin dependencies.

Download EasyPlayTV

Free and open source. Three packages: the video addon (playback), the Service addon (PVR + library sync inside Kodi), and the standalone service (same runtime, non-Kodi server).

Download latest release or browse all releases on Codeberg

Source code: Codeberg repo · v1.3.0

Quick start

Decide which install variant you need: video addon only, video addon + Service addon, or video addon + standalone service
Download the matching ZIP from the release page
Open Kodi → Add-ons → Install from ZIP file → select the downloaded file
See Installation for full instructions including MySQL setup

What each package does

Package	Runs on	Provides
`plugin.video.easyplaytv` (video addon)	Every Kodi device	Live channel grid, stream resolution, account sign-in. Playback only — no service code, no database.
`service.easyplaytv` (Service addon)	The server Kodi device	PVR generation (`channels.m3u` + `epg.xml`), `pvr.iptvsimple` configuration, library sync, HTTP serving of PVR files. Server role — no device-role settings.
`easyplaytv-service` (standalone service)	Non-Kodi server	The same runtime as the Service addon, as a systemd/Docker process driven by `config.yaml`.

Features

28+ live TV channels — BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky News, STV, Blaze
Live TV in Kodi's native TV section — PVR channel list + EPG guide (via the Service addon or standalone). Radio EPG for 44 BBC stations comes from BBC Sounds schedules
Movies & TV Shows library — synced to Kodi's library with TMDb metadata (posters, fanart, plots, ratings)
Provider badges — [ITVX], [C4], [My5], [STV], [BLAZE] on all synced titles
Background sync — runs a sequential batch: providers sync one-after-another, then the PVR list + EPG refresh; capped at the sync interval (default 6 h, 1 = hourly)
Optional sign-in — ITVX, Channel 4, and My5 account login for premium content

Providers

Provider	Live	VOD	Sign-in required?
BBC iPlayer	Yes	Yes	TV license setting
ITVX	Yes	Yes	Yes (for VOD)
Channel 4	Yes	Yes	No (optional for premium)
My5	Yes	Yes	No (optional for premium)
Sky News	Yes	—	No
STV Player	Yes	Yes	No
Blaze	Yes	Yes	No

Requirements

Kodi 19+ (Matrix or later) — video addon
inputstream.adaptive (for DASH/Widevine playback)
MySQL database (for library sync — see MySQL setup)
Python 3.11+ or a container runtime — standalone service only

Full installation instructions → Usage guide → Troubleshooting → Changelog & upgrades →

For developers

EasyPlayTV ships as three packages. The video addon handles playback; the Service addon (service.easyplaytv) and the standalone service (easyplaytv-service) both run the same easyplaytv_service runtime for PVR generation and library sync:

Video addon — plugin.video.easyplaytv, plugin entry point default.py. Invoked on every listitem click. Short-lived, stateless: routes URLs to per-provider resolvers.
Service addon — service.easyplaytv, a Kodi xbmc.service that vendors the runtime and drives it (server role, pvr.iptvsimple configuration, HTTP serving).
Standalone service — easyplaytv-service, the same runtime as a systemd/Docker process, configured via config.yaml.

Developer docs	Description
Architecture	Big picture, data flow between modules, request flow
Kodi DB schema	What Kodi tables the addon writes to and why
Provider matrix	How providers compare (endpoints, auth, DRM, pagination)
Installation	All three install variants (video addon, Service addon, standalone)
Package overview	Which package does what
Changelog & upgrades	Release history and backward-compat upgrade steps

Project layout

EasyPlayTV/
├── addon.xml                 — video addon manifest (plugin.video.easyplaytv)
├── default.py                — plugin entry point (cached per-call routing)
├── README.md
├── service.easyplaytv/       — Service addon (separately-shipped zip)
│   ├── addon.xml             — xbmc.service, depends on plugin.video.easyplaytv
│   ├── service.py            — thin Kodi service entry
│   ├── lib/kodi_service.py   — Kodi adapter (server role, iptvsimple config)
│   ├── lib/easyplaytv_service/ — vendored runtime (byte-copy of standalone)
│   └── lib/pymysql/          — bundled MySQL connector
├── easyplaytv-service/       — standalone service (separately-shipped)
│   ├── src/easyplaytv_service/ — canonical runtime (config, database, runtime,
│   │                             scheduler, http_server, pvr/, vod_sync/)
│   ├── config.yaml.example
│   ├── easyplaytv-service.service — systemd unit
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── tests/
└── resources/                — video addon resources
    ├── settings.xml          — addon settings UI
    ├── language/en_gb/strings.po
    └── lib/                  — per-provider resolvers (playback only)