Templates

Templates define how your EPG content looks - the titles, descriptions, and artwork for programmes in your guide.

New install? Teamarr ships with a curated set of starter templates modeled on professional (Gracenote) EPG conventions — you don’t need to build templates from scratch. Assign the starters that match your setup and customize later.

What Templates Do

When Teamarr generates EPG, it uses templates to create programme entries. Templates contain:

Title, subtitle, and description formats using variables like {team_name}, {opponent}, {game_time}
Filler content for pregame, postgame, and idle periods
Conditional logic to show different descriptions based on game context
XMLTV metadata like categories and flags

A single template can be assigned to multiple teams or event groups.

Template Types

Team Templates

For team-based EPG where each team has a dedicated channel (e.g., “Detroit Lions”, “LA Lakers”).

Channel persists 24/7
Content shown from the team’s perspective (“we play the Bears”)
Includes idle content for days without games
Supports .next and .last suffixes to reference upcoming/previous games

Event Templates

For event-based EPG where channels are created dynamically for each game.

Channels appear around game time and disappear after
Content is positional (“away team @ home team”) rather than team-specific
No idle content needed (no channel when no game)
No .next or .last suffixes needed - each channel references only one event
Used with event groups that match streams to real events

Template Form Tabs

The template editor has five tabs:

Tab	Purpose
Basic Info	Template name and event duration settings
Defaults	Title, subtitle, description(s), artwork URL, and channel name/logo (event templates)
Conditions	Rules that show different descriptions based on game context (team templates only)
Fillers	Pregame, postgame, and idle content, each with optional condition rows
Other EPG Options	XMLTV categories, tags (new/live/date), and video quality

When creating a template, every tab is pre-filled with working defaults: a Next button below each tab walks you through them in order, and each tab in the strip carries a small hint — a check once you’ve reviewed it, an amber dot if something required (the template name) is still missing. Tabs stay freely clickable, and editing an existing template shows no stepper at all.

The Previewing as bar above the tabs selects the league (and live vs. sample data) for every preview on the page, and the Guide Preview card in the right rail renders the title, subtitle, and description as a viewer’s guide would show them — see Previewing Templates.

Variables

Templates use variables enclosed in curly braces that get replaced with real data:

{team_name} vs {opponent} at {venue}
→ "Detroit Lions vs Chicago Bears at Ford Field"

Team templates support suffixes for multi-game context:

{opponent} - current game’s opponent
{opponent.next} - next game’s opponent
{opponent.last} - last game’s opponent

Event templates don’t use suffixes - each channel exists for a single event, so there’s no “next” or “last” game to reference.

See Variables for the complete list of 217 available variables. Artwork fields support a shared Game Thumbs base URL so templates can store relative image paths — see Artwork & Game Thumbs.

Filler Content

Team templates support filler programmes for non-game periods:

Filler	When It Shows
Pregame	Hours before game starts (configurable)
Postgame	After game ends until midnight or next programme
Idle	Days with no games scheduled

Each filler has its own title, subtitle, description, and artwork URL — plus optional condition rows that override those fields based on the register’s reference game (pregame → next game, postgame/idle → last game). The starter set uses this to show ESPN’s recap headline once it’s published and an in-progress line while a game is still running. See Filler condition rows.

Conditions

Conditions let you show different descriptions based on game context:

Team on a win streak? Show “🔥 5-game win streak!”
Playing at home? Show “Home game at {venue}”
Ranked matchup? Show “Top 25 showdown”

Conditions have priorities - the first matching condition wins.

See Conditions for available condition types.

Getting Started

The fastest path is the shipped starter set — every install seeds ten Gracenote-modeled templates covering team channels, US pro events, soccer (club and international), college, combat, tennis, and racing. See Default Templates for the full set and recommended scoping.

Go to Templates — the starter templates are already there, unassigned
Assign the ones that match your setup (per sport/league, or as global defaults) via Template Assignments
Rename or edit freely — an edited starter is yours and never touched by upgrades

To build your own from scratch:

Go to Templates and click Create Template
Choose Team or Event type (this cannot be changed later)
Fill in the defaults with your preferred formats
Optionally configure fillers and conditions
Save and assign the template to teams or event groups