Sources

A Source is an IPTV stream group (event-based) that Teamarr matches to real-world sporting events. Event-based EPG creates dynamic channels from those M3U streams: unlike team channels (which are persistent), event channels appear when a game is about to start and disappear after it ends.

Sources were called Event Groups before v2.7.0. The app route is now /sources, and the per-source settings that used to live under Settings → Event Groups now live in the Source editor.

How It Works

Your IPTV provider delivers streams organized into groups (e.g., “NFL”, “ESPN+”, “DAZN”)
You import these stream groups into Teamarr as Sources
Teamarr parses each stream name, matches it to a real sporting event, and creates a channel with rich EPG data
Channels are created in Dispatcharr with proper names, logos, EPG data, and group/profile assignments

Global Defaults vs Per-Source Settings

Teamarr uses a subscription model where global defaults apply to all sources:

League subscriptions — which sports and leagues to scan for events
Soccer configuration — follow teams, select leagues, or include all
Template assignments — which EPG template to use by sport/league
Team filter — include/exclude specific teams from matching

These are configured in the Global Defaults panel at the top of the Sources page.

Individual sources can override these defaults when needed (e.g., a hockey-only stream source that shouldn’t scan for football events).

The Sources Table

Below Global Defaults, the sources table shows all configured sources with:

Column	Description
Name	Source name and M3U account
Matched	Stream coverage — how many of the source’s eligible streams matched at least one event, as a 0–100% rate. Hover for the total matches produced and the last-run timestamp.
Status	Enable/disable toggle
Actions	Preview matches, clear cache, edit, delete

Click Matched numbers to see which streams matched to which events. Click the preview button to see current stream matches without running a full generation.

The percentage is stream coverage: distinct streams matched ÷ eligible streams (always 0–100%). The hover tooltip shows matches produced — the total number of stream→event matches. With EPG matching, one linear stream (ESPN, FS1…) is time-shared across many events, so matches produced can far exceed the stream count. These are tracked separately so coverage stays a true health signal.

Importing Sources

Click Import to pull stream groups from your Dispatcharr M3U accounts. Teamarr shows available groups with stream counts. Select the groups you want and they’ll be created as sources with default settings.

Binding by Name Pattern

Some IPTV providers rotate group names — EPL (MW1) becomes EPL (MW2), dated tournament groups come and go. Dispatcharr matches M3U groups by exact name, so a provider rename always creates a new group and a source pinned to the old one silently stops finding streams.

Bind by name pattern (in the source’s Basic Settings) makes the source rename-proof: instead of the pinned group, the source binds to a regular expression over live M3U group names, re-resolved on every generation run. A pattern like EPL $MW\d+$ keeps matching no matter which matchweek the provider is on. If the pattern matches several groups at once, the source scans all of them (scoped to its M3U account), and while a renamed group’s old and new versions briefly coexist, stale streams from the old one are filtered out automatically.

The editor shows a live “Matches N groups” preview as you type. A pattern that matches nothing means the source is treated as stale — same as a missing pinned group.

A stale pattern never deletes your channels: when it matches nothing, the source simply skips the run and existing channels stay until their normal post-event expiry. If the pattern still matches some groups but misses one (say a rename escaped your regex), streams from the missed group are treated like streams removed from the M3U — they’re detached on the next run, and a channel is removed only once no streams are left on it.

Re-bind Suggestions

When a source goes stale, Teamarr scans the live M3U groups for a likely rename — an unused group whose name closely matches the old one — and offers it right in the stale-sources banner:

Re-bind — one click pins the source to the new group (and turns pattern binding off, so the pin is what’s actually used).
Re-bind + pattern — also derives a pattern from the old/new name difference (EPL (MW1) → EPL (MW2) suggests ^EPL $MW\d+$$) and enables pattern binding with it, so the next rename re-binds automatically.

Suggestions are never applied silently — the suggested pattern is shown before you click, and you can always fine-tune it later in the source editor with the live match preview. Re-binding only updates the source’s binding; existing channels are untouched.

Stream Matching Pipeline

When EPG generation runs, each stream goes through:

Filtering — include/exclude regex, built-in filters for non-sport content
Classification — parse stream name to extract teams, league, date, time
Matching — find the corresponding real-world event from provider data
Channel creation — create/update the Dispatcharr channel with EPG data

Streams that can’t be matched appear in the Failed count. Click it to see details and use the Fix button to manually link a stream to an event.

Matching Types

Each Source declares which matching pipeline(s) it runs. The three types are independent — enable any combination, and each stream is routed to whichever applies. Every Source must have at least one enabled. The Sources table shows a color-coded badge per active type.

Type	Badge	Matches	Example
Stream Name	blue	Streams whose name identifies a specific event	`Bills vs Dolphins`, `DAZN: Man City vs Arsenal`
Team	green	A team’s branded stream → that team’s games in the window (one stream → many events)	`NHL \\| Toronto Maple Leafs`
EPG	violet	Static linear channels → events via Dispatcharr’s program guide, time-sharing one stream across events	`ESPN`, `NBA1`

A Source that does only Team or EPG (Stream Name off) shows a raw stream count in the Matched column instead of a coverage percentage — those types fan one stream out to many events, so a matched ÷ total percentage isn’t a meaningful health signal.

Set these on a Source in the editor (and at bulk add / bulk edit). EPG requires a Dispatcharr build with the program-search API — see EPG Program Matching below.

Event Matching Window

The Event Lookahead controls how far ahead Teamarr matches streams to sporting events — streams are matched only to events within this window. Default is 3 days; options are 1, 3, 7, 14, or 30 days.

Tennis: majors only (Global Defaults → Teams tile, next to the playoff bypass; shown when subscribed to ATP/WTA) restricts tennis matching to the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open). Smaller ATP/WTA tournaments are ignored entirely — no channels are created for them. Off by default.

EPG Program Matching

Traditional linear channels (ESPN, NBA1, FS1) carry many different games across a day under a single static stream name, so Teamarr can’t match them by name. EPG program-data matching uses Dispatcharr’s program guide to match these streams to events by the program title (e.g. “MLB Baseball” / “Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals”), then time-shares one linear stream across many event channels — attaching it to each event’s channel only near game time and detaching it after.

EPG matching is enabled per Source (there is no global switch); the global tuning below applies to every source that opts in. It has no effect unless the connected Dispatcharr exposes the program-search API.

Setting	Description
Attach before (minutes)	How long before a program’s start the stream attaches to the event channel.
Detach after (minutes)	How long after a program’s end the stream detaches.
Use Dispatcharr channels as an EPG source	Opt-in additive source (default off). Alongside per-source M3U matching, Teamarr pulls candidate streams from the channels you’ve already curated in Dispatcharr — using each channel’s own linked EPG to match its assigned streams to events. Lets you match only the channel versions you’ve mapped instead of every stream in a provider group. Runs as a hidden system source (“Dispatcharr Channels”); Teamarr’s own generated channels are excluded (they are output, not input).
Dispatcharr groups to include	(Shown when the above is on.) Pick which Dispatcharr channel groups to scan. Only channels in the selected groups are matched — fewer groups means faster generation. Leave empty to include all groups. The selected groups also appear as a Dispatcharr Group rule under Channels → Stream Ordering.
Fall back to Xtream (XC) provider EPG	Opt-in backup (default off). EPG matching normally needs a valid stream-to-EPG mapping in Dispatcharr; when on, for Xtream Codes (XC) M3U accounts Teamarr fetches the provider’s own EPG and matches the still-unresolved streams against it — covering channels (e.g. regional sports networks) Dispatcharr has no guide for. The provider guide is cached on disk per XC account.
Cache for (hours)	(Shown when the XC fallback is on.) How long a downloaded XC provider guide is reused before re-fetching. Default 24. Provider guides change slowly, so a longer cache avoids redundant downloads and keeps generations fast.

Turn matching on per Source (each source’s EPG program matching toggle) — only sources that opt in are scanned. The channel still exists for its normal lifecycle (filler + upcoming guide); only the linear stream swaps in and out near game time.

Requires a recent Dispatcharr build with the program-search endpoint (/api/epg/programs/search/). Older builds ignore the setting. Attach/detach precision is bounded by how often EPG generation runs.

See the full EPG Program Matching guide for how stream→guide resolution works (no manual EPG mapping needed), requirements, the EPG Matched badge and stream-ordering rule, and troubleshooting.

Exception Keywords

When using Consolidate mode, exception keywords allow special handling for certain streams. Streams matching these terms get sub-consolidated or separated instead of following the default consolidation behavior.

Exception keywords only appear when consolidation mode is set to Consolidate in Settings → Channels.

Example Use Case

Your IPTV provider carries both English and Spanish streams for the same game. With consolidation enabled, they’d merge into one channel. Adding a “Spanish” exception keyword with “Separate” behavior creates a separate channel for the Spanish stream.

Keyword Fields

Field	Description
Label	Display name (available as `{exception_keyword}` in templates)
Match Terms	Comma-separated terms to match in stream names
Behavior	Sub-Consolidate, Separate, or Ignore

Behavior	Description
Sub-Consolidate	Group matching streams together, separate from the main consolidated channel
Separate	Each matching stream gets its own channel
Ignore	Skip matching streams entirely

See Adding a Source for detailed configuration options.

Adding a Source