How do I find programmes to watch live and on demand?

TV

The TV Guide is the place to go for all the TV that's live and coming up. Most devices let you open the guide in either EPG (Electronic Program Guide) which lets you scroll horizontally across to see what's on later, or Guide, which tells you what's on now.

You can also access the TV Guide through Freeview Play and via our website, as well as via the Freeview mobile app, which lets you set favourites and reminders.

If you want to check which channels you should be able to get in your area, just put your postcode into the Freeview Channel Checker.

On-demand TV through channel 100

If you have a Freeview Play device it means you’ve got on-demand TV built-in, so you can catch up straight away on any shows you might have missed.

Go to channel 100 and you’ll see all the on-demand players you can use, plus a carousel of featured content to watch. You can filter programmes using the various categories, or use the universal search to find on-demand and live programming.

Watch our handy videos to find out more about how to discover on-demand on your Freeview Play TV.

Discover on-demand

Restart your programme

If you’re watching a BBC channel on a Freeview Play TV, you can restart a live programme before it becomes available on demand. Just press the green button on your remote control to load the BBC iPlayer app and start playback from the beginning.

Use the remote control shortcuts in the guide

Every remote control gives you shortcuts for using the guide. These differ from device to device, but there’s usually an on-screen guide to help you.

For example, on the guide below, the red button allows you to jump back 24 hours, the green button to jump forward 24 hours, and the blue button to jump to now. The yellow button brings up the filter options, so you can view: your favourite channels; just HD channels; radio; or all.

Look out for page up and down buttons, which are often near the volume buttons. These let you skip up and down lists a page at a time, which makes it much faster to scroll through loads of channels to see what’s on.

All Freeview TVs have similar controls, but your remote layout and exact instructions will depend on the TV or set-top box you’re using, so check your user manual for exact steps if you need to.

APP

In the Freeview mobile app, as long as you're online, you’ll instantly be able to see what’s showing on TV at that moment. Just scroll up and down the What’s On section of the app. There's also a progress bar that tells you how much of the programme has been on already.

And if you want to see what’s coming up next, swipe to the side.

On-demand content

Just tap On Demand in the bottom menu of the app for a curated selection of shows to watch now or download through individual players to watch offline later. 

Watch our handy videos to find out more about how to discover on-demand on your Freeview Play TV.

Discover on-demand

Plan your viewing

Tap Guide for the app’s 15-day programme guide, which shows you what's on in the couple of weeks ahead. You can set reminders or double-tap a channel to add it as a favourite. 

If you've missed something, you can also swipe back through the guide to the previous week. Anything available for catch-up is clearly flagged, so you won’t miss out.

Speedy searching

The super-fast search function starts making suggestions as you type, whether you’re looking for a show on now or on demand.

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