How to Create Your Own TV Channel (2026 Guide)

You can create your own TV channel today: a real 24/7 linear channel with a schedule, playing on phones, smart TVs and the web, built from videos you already have. This guide covers what that actually means, the three ways to do it and what each one costs, the steps with My TV Channel, the rights you need, and how to get people to tune in.

Published 29 October 2026 · My TV Channel

What a 24/7 TV channel actually is

That is the difference from a YouTube channel or a streaming library. On demand, the viewer picks a video, and when it ends they have to pick again. On a linear channel nobody picks. They tune in, something is already playing, and the next programme follows on its own. That is why people leave linear channels on in the background, and why a channel builds a habit where a video library builds a queue of decisions.

Online, a linear channel is usually made from files you already have. A piece of software called a playout system reads your schedule, plays the files back to back as one continuous live stream, and serves that stream to every player that asks for it. The industry name for this is VOD2Live, or a FAST channel when it is free and ad-supported. Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus are built this way, and so are YouTube's new Stations.

So when people search for how to create a web TV channel, an internet TV channel or a linear TV channel, they mean the same three things: a library of video, a schedule, and something that turns the two into a stream that never stops.

What you need before you start

• Content. A day is 24 hours. You can start with far less, but under about eight hours of material a viewer who stays for an evening will see reruns. Add up your total running time first.
• The rights to all of it. More on this below. It is the one step you cannot skip.
• A name and an idea. A channel with a theme (a town, a sport, a hobby, a band, a single creator) gives people a reason to come back. "Everything I have ever filmed, shuffled" does not.
• Somewhere for viewers to watch. A link that works in a browser is the minimum. Apps on the TV in the living room are what make it feel like television.

Three ways to make one, compared

1. Do it yourself: OBS or ErsatzTV

The cheapest route in cash. One version is to build a playlist in OBS or a similar encoder and stream it around the clock to YouTube Live or Twitch. It works, but the computer must stay on and online 24 hours a day, a power cut or an update takes you off air, and you get no programme guide.

The other is ErsatzTV, a free, open-source program you install on your own Windows, Linux or Mac machine. It turns a Plex, Jellyfin or Emby library into live channels with an electronic programme guide, watched through an IPTV app. It is excellent for a home media server. It is less suited to a public channel, because viewers need an IPTV player pointed at your server, and your home connection carries every stream.

2. Playout as a service: Viloud, Muvi and others

Hosted platforms run the playout for you in the cloud. Viloud is aimed at organisations and brands: you upload or link videos, build a schedule, and get a player and a branded website. Its plans are monthly and capped in storage minutes and viewing minutes, with a 14-day free trial. Muvi and similar enterprise OTT platforms go further, with your own branded apps, at business prices. These are good tools if you are a company with a marketing budget. For one person with a video library, the monthly cost is usually the obstacle.

3. My TV Channel

My TV Channel is built for the individual creator, club, school or local outlet. You bring the videos, it transcodes them, builds a rolling 24/7 schedule on its own and puts the channel on air in viewer apps people already have on their TV. You do not run a server, and you do not need to know what a playout is.

Any of the three can be the right answer. If you enjoy running servers and your audience is your household, ErsatzTV is hard to beat. If you are a brand with a budget, look at the SaaS platforms. If you want a channel people can find on their TV this week without becoming an engineer, read on.

Step by step with My TV Channel

Everything up to the payment happens in your browser at my-tv-channel.com/launch. You can also do all of it in the iPhone, iPad or Mac app.

1. Name your channel and pick a handle

   The handle becomes your channel's web address, yourhandle.my-tv-channel.com. The wizard checks that it is free as you type.

2. Add your videos, or point it at your YouTube channel

   Upload at least four videos and fifteen minutes in total. Or paste your YouTube or Vimeo channel address, and it selects your most popular public videos until there is enough to go on air. You can attach a "more info" link to any video; viewers see it as a QR code on the TV and a button on phones.

3. Confirm the rights

   For uploads you tick a box confirming you own the rights. For YouTube or Vimeo you prove the channel is yours by putting a short claim code in its description or in one video's description. You can do this later; the channel just stays off air until the code is found.

4. Optionally, connect your Discord

   Link a channel on a Discord server you already run, and viewers get the chat next to the player. See how the Discord chat works.

5. Sign in, get the app, start Starter

   Sign in with Apple or Google and your channel is created. Payments happen in the app, through the App Store or Google Play, so the wizard sends you to the right store for your device. Starting the Starter plan, $0.99 a week, releases your videos for processing.

6. It schedules itself and goes on air

   Each video is transcoded into streaming formats. As soon as four are ready, the channel builds its 24/7 schedule and launches on its own. There is no "go live" button to forget.

7. People watch it everywhere

   Your channel plays in the free My TV Channel apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android and Android TV, Fire TV and Roku, and on the web at its own address, which you can embed on your own site. Add more videos at any time and they join the rotation.

What it costs, and is it free?

Plans are weekly, with no long-term commitment, and you pay in the app. Each plan has a weekly upload allowance (minutes of new video you can add) and a weekly streaming allowance (the total minutes your viewers watch).

To put the streaming numbers in perspective: 500 minutes is a little over eight hours of total viewing a week, which is right for proving the idea with friends and a first audience. If your viewers go past your allowance, nobody is cut off in the middle of a programme. The app tells you, so you can move up a plan.

So, can you create your own TV channel for free?

Honestly: not on My TV Channel. There is no free tier and no free trial. And in general, "free" only exists where you supply the infrastructure yourself. A 24/7 stream from your own computer to YouTube costs no subscription, but your machine has to run all day, every day, on your electricity and your upload bandwidth. ErsatzTV is free software on a server you own. Hosted platforms that advertise a free trial bill you when it ends.

The cheapest way to have a channel that someone else keeps on air, plays on real TV apps and has its own web address is Starter at $0.99 a week. It is cheap on purpose: enough to find out whether people leave your channel on, before you spend anything real.

Content rights

A 24/7 channel is public distribution, so you need the right to stream everything on it. That is the rule on every platform, not just ours.

• Your own work is the simplest case: videos you filmed, edited and own outright.
• Music is where most channels get into trouble. A song in the background of your video needs a licence that covers streaming. Use your own music, royalty-free libraries whose licence covers it, or none.
• Licensed content is fine if the licence explicitly covers streaming or broadcast, in the countries where you are seen. Get it in writing.
• Public domain and Creative Commons material can work, but check each item. "Old" does not mean public domain, and many Creative Commons licences forbid commercial use or modification.
• Recordings of other channels, films or sports are off limits unless you hold the rights. Recording it yourself does not change that.

This is why My TV Channel asks uploaders to confirm ownership and asks YouTube or Vimeo channels for a claim code. It protects you as much as anyone: a channel built on content you do not own can be taken down at any point.

How to get viewers

A channel nobody watches is a screensaver. What works:

• Program it like a channel, not a playlist. Group your videos into three or four recurring shows. A channel that moves between shows feels scheduled; one that shuffles everything feels random.
• Make idents. Twenty seconds of channel identity between programmes is the cheapest production you will ever do, and it changes how the whole thing feels.
• Give it a room. Connect the Discord server your community already uses, so the conversation about what is on happens where people already talk.
• Put the link everywhere you already are. Your handle address works in any browser. Put it in your YouTube and social bios, embed the player on your website, and print the QR code at events if you are a club or a venue.
• Go local or go niche. A channel for one town, one team or one passion has an obvious audience and an obvious reason to exist. Local businesses are also the easiest first advertisers.
• Measure it. Connect Google Analytics to see when people tune in, then put your best material in those hours.
• Earn from it when it is ready. Free-to-air channels can carry ads with 0% commission, including pause ads. Or charge through pay-per-view connected to your own Stripe, PayPal, Patreon or Ko-fi account and keep 100%.

FAQ

More questions? Read the FAQ, or tell us what this guide is missing.