Short answer: TiviMate is a player, not a service. It ships with no channels, no content and no subscription to anything watchable — you supply a playlist and it displays it. It runs on Android TV devices only: Fire TV sticks, NVIDIA Shield, Chromecast with Google TV, Android TV boxes. Not iOS, not Apple TV, not Roku, not web browsers. The free version handles one playlist; Premium adds recording, catch-up, multiple playlists and multi-view. Whether your setup is legal depends entirely on where your playlist comes from, and nothing about the app changes that.
Prices below are as listed in mid-2026 and sources disagree, so check the app before buying.
The distinction that matters most
The developer states it plainly on the Google Play listing: TiviMate is a media player only and does not provide any content. It isn't affiliated with any content provider and doesn't endorse illegal sources. A paid upgrade unlocks application features only — it does not include or provide access to any channels, streams or media.
Read that twice, because most articles about TiviMate bury it. The app is closer to VLC than to a TV service. Buying Premium gets you a better remote control for content you already have access to. It gets you no content whatsoever.
This also settles the legality question people actually mean when they ask it. The player is legal software. A playlist from a service licensed to distribute what it carries is legal to watch. A playlist from a service selling thousands of premium channels for a few dollars a month is not, and installing a well-designed player in front of it changes nothing about that. The app is not the variable.
Free versus Premium
| Free | Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Playlists | 1 | Multiple |
| EPG | Limited (~2 days) | Full, multiple sources per playlist |
| Recording / PVR | No | Yes, including scheduled |
| Catch-up TV | No | Yes |
| Multi-view | No | Yes |
| Channel groups | View only | Create, rename, reorder, hide |
| Backup & restore | No | Yes, local or cloud |
| Ads | Yes | No |
Recent listings put Premium at $9.99 per year or $33.99 for a lifetime licence covering up to five devices, purchased through Google Play. Older sources quote $5 and $20, so prices have moved and may move again — treat any figure in an article, including this one, as needing confirmation in the app.
Is it worth it? If you run one playlist and don't record anything, the free version is genuinely fine and you should stay on it. The upgrade earns its money the moment you want a second playlist, scheduled recording, or real channel organisation. On daily use the lifetime licence overtakes the annual in under four years, which makes it the better buy for anyone confident they'll still be using it.
Device support, stated honestly
TiviMate works on Android TV. That covers Fire TV and Firestick, NVIDIA Shield, Chromecast with Google TV, Mi Box, and generic Android TV boxes.
It does not run on iPhone or iPad, Apple TV, Roku, Windows, macOS, or in a browser. Reports differ on plain Android phones and tablets — it's built for the TV interface and remote navigation, and it isn't the right tool on a handset regardless.
If you're on Apple or Roku, no workaround makes this app appear. Look at a different player rather than following a guide that promises otherwise.
Setting it up
You'll need either an M3U playlist URL, or Xtream Codes credentials (server URL, username, password) from whoever supplies your content. If you're unsure which you have, or why there are two formats at all, we explain the difference here.
1. Install the app
On Android TV or Google TV, install from the Play Store directly. On a Fire TV device, TiviMate isn't in Amazon's store — you install the Downloader app, enable installation from unknown sources in Settings under My Fire TV, then use Downloader to fetch the APK. Sideloading is a normal Fire TV workflow, but only ever take the file from the developer's own site.
2. Add your playlist
On first launch the app asks you to add a playlist. Choose M3U and paste the URL, or choose Xtream Codes and enter the three credentials separately.
This is where most setups fail. A service that gives you Xtream Codes credentials will usually also expose an M3U URL built from those same credentials, and the two are not interchangeable in the app's fields. Pasting one into the other produces an authorisation error that looks exactly like a wrong password. Check also whether your server address includes a port number — it usually does, and omitting it fails the same way.
3. Wait for the channel load
A large playlist takes a minute or more on first load. Interrupting it leaves a partial channel list that looks like a broken playlist, so let it finish.
4. Add an EPG source
Xtream Codes usually supplies the guide through the same connection. With M3U you generally need a separate XMLTV URL from your provider. Premium allows several EPG sources against one playlist, which is the actual fix for channels showing "No Information" — a second source often fills the gaps the first one leaves.
If the guide loads but times are wrong, that's a timezone offset rather than a bad source, and TiviMate has a per-source offset setting for it.
5. Organise before you watch
This is the step people skip and regret. On a 300-channel playlist, the default order is whatever the provider sent, and finding anything becomes a chore.
Mark favourites as you go — it's the single highest-value habit in the app. On Premium, build channel groups that reflect how you actually watch rather than how the playlist is structured, and hide groups you'll never open. Hidden groups also serve as crude parental control.
6. Set playback defaults
Two settings worth changing early. Automatic frame rate switching, on Premium, matches your display's refresh rate to the content — 24fps for film, 25 or 30 for broadcast — which removes judder on devices that support it. And if you see stutter on specific channels, try switching the decoder for that channel between hardware and software; some streams only play cleanly on one.
Using it day to day
A few things that aren't obvious from the interface:
The remote. Long-press the OK button on a channel for its options. Up and down move through channels while playing; left and right reach the guide and the panel. Most complaints about navigation come from not knowing the long-press.
Multiple playlists. On Premium, channels from several playlists can sit in one unified list, which is how people run a backup source alongside a primary without switching between them.
Recording. Premium records to local or attached storage. Scheduled recording works off the EPG, so it's only as accurate as your guide data — a source that runs a few minutes out will clip the start or end.
Catch-up. Only works when your provider supplies it. If catch-up is greyed out, that's upstream, not a setting you've missed.
Backup. Premium backs up playlists, EPG sources, groups, favourites and settings, locally or to cloud storage. Do this once you've finished organising — restoring onto a second device takes seconds and saves repeating all of the above.
What TiviMate won't fix
Buffering. The app is a player; a stream that stalls stalls because of your network, your device, or the source. Premium adds features, not bandwidth. If you're buffering, diagnose it properly — our buffering guide works through the causes in order.
A bad source. Channel quality, uptime, EPG accuracy and catch-up availability are all determined upstream. No player setting compensates.
Device limits. If your box can't decode the codec in hardware, TiviMate can't either.
What not to bother with
"Modded" or cracked Premium APKs. You're installing an unsigned binary with network access on a device on your home network, to avoid a one-time payment of a few tens of dollars. The economics are absurd even setting aside that they're frequently bundled with malware.
"Lifetime key" sites. Premium is an in-app purchase through Google Play. Anywhere selling keys is selling something else.
Buying Premium to test a provider. Get the free version working with one playlist first. If the stream is bad, Premium won't help, and you'll have paid to find that out.
Guides that bundle the app with a service. If an article about a player spends most of its length recommending where to buy channels, it's an advert. The player and the source are separate decisions.
Quick answers
Does TiviMate include channels? No. None. You supply the playlist.
Is TiviMate legal? The app is. Your playlist source determines the rest.
Does it work on Firestick? Yes — Fire TV is Android-based. Install via Downloader.
Does it work on Roku or Apple TV? No, and there's no workaround.
Is Premium a subscription? Both options exist: annual, or a one-time lifetime licence covering up to five devices.
Will Premium stop my buffering? No. That's a network, device or source problem.
Sources: TiviMate listing on Google Play (developer statements on content and licensing); published feature and pricing comparisons from 2026, which disagree on price and are flagged as such above.