How we test

Every provider on IPTV Direct Buy goes through the same hands-on process before it is ranked. We pay for our own subscriptions and nobody can pay to change a score.

1. UK business & rights checks

Before testing, we confirm the provider is a real business with a UK presence: a Companies House registration, a trading address and published terms. We also check the provider holds the rights to the channels and content it streams. Services that fail are not listed.

2. 30-day streaming test

We stream on a Smart TV, a Fire TV stick and a phone over 25, 50 and 100 Mbps connections, logging picture quality, start-up time, buffering and uptime, including peak Saturday-evening sport.

3. Content audit

We count live channels and on-demand titles and check how well the guide, catch-up and search work.

4. Support mystery-shop

We send the same three questions to every provider’s support team and score response time, accuracy and tone.

5. Scoring

Overall score = Stream quality 25% + Content 20% + Value 20% + Customer support 20% + Reliability 15%.