Keep favourite channels close

Make an everyday shortlist

Favourites give you a shorter route to the channels you actually choose. Adding a favourite does not copy a stream, change a provider subscription or publish a Channel Studio recipe. The channel must remain available to the active profile.

Begin in the profile that should own the shortlist. If you are setting up another person’s viewing experience, switching profiles first is more useful than trying to make one universal list and expecting every profile to share it.

Favourite a provider channel

1. Open Live and find an accessible channel.
2. Open its context menu: use the platform’s context action, such as a sustained selection on a touch or remote interface, or the available pointer context action.
3. Choose Add Favorite. This is the spelling used by the current provider-channel menu.
4. Choose Favorites in Live to browse the resulting list.

The Favorites category appears when there are permitted favourites. If a source or profile restriction hides a channel, marking it as a favourite does not override that restriction.

Favourite a Channel Studio channel

1. Open Live → Channel Studio.
2. Open the published channel’s context menu.
3. Choose Add to Favourites. Channel Studio uses this different label in the app.
4. Return to Live’s Favorites category to find permitted favourites.

A channel that is only saved as a recipe has no published Live row to favourite there. Open Channel Studio, review and publish its schedule first. See Saved recipes and published channels if the two lists differ.

An example that stays useful

Suppose you regularly watch a news channel, a music channel and your own film channel. Add those three and try the Favorites category for a few evenings. Keep occasional channels in their normal categories until you find that you actually want faster access to them.

A useful shortlist is small enough to scan. Favouriting every channel recreates the original long list. When a favourite stops being useful, removing the favourite is less disruptive than hiding the channel or deleting a Channel Studio recipe.

Remove a favourite

Open the same menu again. A provider channel offers Remove Favorite; a Channel Studio channel offers Remove from Favourites. This removes the personal selection rather than the underlying programme source.

For a Studio channel, do not choose Delete Channel when you only want it out of the favourites list. Deletion removes its saved channel and lineup entry, while its original films and episodes are kept in the source.

Troubleshooting the list

Favorites is missing: first add one permitted channel and check that you are in the intended profile. An empty permitted list does not need its own category.

A favourite is missing on another device: confirm the same managed account and profile, allow the connected device to refresh and check source access. Updates may need time to reach another connected device.

I replaced a source: a source identity can change even if the new display name is the same. For Studio recipes, reconnect their source bindings. For provider channels, verify the currently accessible channel rather than assuming an old entry identifies the new route.

Can favourites bypass Adult protection? No. Profile and source permissions continue to apply. A renamed or favourited channel retains its underlying content classification.

Next action

Build a short list now, then use channel organisation if you also need custom categories, names or ordering. Favourites are the quickest first step; organisation controls solve a different problem.