Free IPTV playlists for post-Soviet channels and US TV, built for Apple TV (iPlayTV) and IINA.
# Watch post-Soviet TV in IINA
./tv
# Watch US TV
./tv us
# Update channels from upstream + rebuild
./tv rebuild
# Start local server for Apple TV
./tv serve
# List available playlists
./tv list| Playlist | Channels | What's in it |
|---|---|---|
post-soviet-tv.m3u |
~1,000 | Russia, Ukraine, + 13 former Soviet states |
us-tv.m3u |
~2,400 | US free-to-air and streaming channels |
news-channels.m3u8 |
24 | Comprehensive MSM news package — US networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, MSNBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Cheddar) + major international (BBC, Al Jazeera, France 24, DW, CGTN, TRT World, WION, RT, etc.) |
- Install iPlayTV from the App Store (~$6)
- On your Mac, run:
./tv serve - On Apple TV → iPlayTV → Add Playlist → enter:
http://<your-mac-ip>:8642/post-soviet-tv.m3uhttp://<your-mac-ip>:8642/us-tv.m3uhttp://<your-mac-ip>:8642/news-channels.m3u8
- Done — folders show up automatically from group-title tags
The server prints your Mac's local IP when it starts.
~/Documents/tv/
├── build.py # playlist builder
├── tv # quick launcher (alias this)
├── serve.py # HTTP server for iPlayTV
├── README.md
├── output/
│ ├── post-soviet-tv.m3u
│ ├── us-tv.m3u
│ └── news-channels.m3u8
└── upstream/
├── iptv-org/ # github.com/iptv-org/iptv (streams)
├── free-tv/ # github.com/Free-TV/IPTV (curated)
└── channels.csv # genre database from iptv-org
Post-Soviet playlist — big countries (RU, UA) get genre subfolders with Russian labels; smaller countries get one folder each:
| Folder | Example |
|---|---|
| 🇷🇺 Новости | RT, Первый канал, Россия 24 |
| 🇷🇺 Кино | Мосфильм, TV1000, Кинокомедия |
| 🇷🇺 Регионы | Башкортостан 24, Кубань 24 |
| 🇺🇦 Новости | 1+1, Рада, Espreso |
| 🇬🇪 Georgia | All Georgian channels in one folder |
| 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | All Kazakh channels in one folder |
US playlist — simple English genre folders: News, Movies, Sports, Kids, Docs, etc.
./tv rebuildThis pulls the latest from iptv-org/iptv and Free-TV/IPTV, downloads a fresh channels.csv for genre data, and rebuilds both playlists.
If you still have the old flat layout (files scattered in ~/Documents/), run:
bash ~/Documents/migrate-tv.sh