LG / entertainment / TIVIMATE IPTV PLAYER
REVIEW
TiviMate brings its Android-TV polish to webOS, mostly intact.
AR Mobile Dev Studio's IPTV player has been the cord-cutter favourite on Android TV for years. The webOS build keeps the layout, the EPG, and the Companion-app trick — and quietly reminds you the player is only as legitimate as the playlist you feed it.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 10, 2026 · 5 MIN READ
TiviMate IPTV Player
XTREAM IPTV PLAYER
OUR SCORE
7.4
LG
★ 5.0
PRICE
Free
TiviMate spent most of the last five years as the default answer to “what should I install on my Android TV box?” — a tidy, remote-friendly IPTV shell with a real electronic programme guide, sensible playlist management, and none of the cartoon UI most M3U players default to. The webOS release ports that sensibility onto LG’s smart TVs without losing the things that made it worth recommending in the first place.
The grid still looks like a proper cable interface rather than a phone app stretched sideways. The EPG scrolls cleanly along the d-pad. Multi-playlist support, catch-up, and recording all survived the platform jump. What you’re paying for, ultimately, is a player — TiviMate doesn’t sell you channels, and it’s careful never to suggest that it does.
That distinction matters more on webOS than it did on Android TV, because LG’s app store sits closer to the mainstream of TV buyers who may not realise an IPTV player is a BYO-content product. The webOS version does its job well; what you point it at is the part nobody at AR Mobile Dev Studio gets to vet.
TiviMate doesn't ship channels — it ships the cleanest grid, EPG, and DVR layer for whatever M3U list you point it at.
FEATURES
TiviMate is an IPTV/M3U player. You supply a playlist URL (or an Xtream Codes login from a provider), it parses the channel list, fetches an XMLTV electronic programme guide, and renders the lot as a cable-style grid you steer with the LG Magic Remote.
The webOS build keeps the feature set users came to expect on Android TV: multi-playlist switching, parental locks, channel groups and favourites, picture-in-picture preview while you scroll the guide, time-shift on streams that support it, and scheduled recording to network storage. The Premium tier adds multi-device sync of settings and playlists, additional simultaneous playlists, custom EPG sources, and the catch-up / recording features.
The Companion mobile app pairs to the TV over the local network and lets you type playlist URLs, search the guide, and configure settings with a phone keyboard instead of pecking at on-screen letters with a remote — easily the single biggest quality-of-life win on a TV platform.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The interface is the best argument for the app. Channel logos sit where you'd expect, now-and-next text is legible from across the room, and the EPG genuinely behaves like an EPG rather than a scrolling list pretending to be one. For a category dominated by apps that look like they were designed for a phone first, that alone earns a recommend.
Playback is the other quiet win. TiviMate handles the codecs and stream types most M3U providers actually emit, recovers from drops without dumping you back to the home screen, and keeps audio-track and subtitle switching one button away. The Companion app turns initial setup from a twenty-minute ordeal into a two-minute one.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The honest caveat is the one TiviMate can't fix: a player is legal, the playlist might not be. The app itself is a legitimate, well-engineered piece of software from a real studio — but a meaningful share of the M3U lists circulating online are unauthorised redistributions of paid channels. TiviMate doesn't ship those lists and doesn't endorse them; what you load is on you. If your provider isn't a licensed IPTV operator in your country, no amount of polish on the player makes the stream legitimate.
The webOS build is also newer than the Android TV one, and it shows in small ways — occasional remote-input lag on older LG sets, a Premium upsell that nags more than it needs to on the free tier, and a pricing page that has shifted often enough that it's worth checking the current rate before committing to a multi-year plan.
CONCLUSION
If you already have a legitimate IPTV subscription and an LG TV, this is the front-end to install — it's better-looking and better-behaved than anything LG's own store surfaces by default. If you don't have a playlist yet, understand that TiviMate is the shell, not the service, and budget accordingly. Watch for whether AR Mobile Dev Studio brings full feature parity with the Android TV build over the next few releases; that's the gap left to close.