How To Create a Pop-up TV Channel With Playout Automation

Pop-up TV channels are strategically designed for capturing & maintaining viewers’ attention by offering personalized, timely, and event-specific programming. 

These temporary broadcast channels provide curated content that resonates with viewers’ interests and, at the same time, creates a sense of urgency and excitement, keeping viewers hooked to the channel until the programming ends.

The best thing is Pop-up TV channels can be deployed quickly and economically, allowing broadcasters to deliver specialized themed programming instantly without substantial infrastructure investments.

In this blog, we will delve deep into the benefits of Pop-up TV channels and how these are different from online TV channels. We will also showcase a step-by-step guide on how to create a pop-up TV channel instantly, without any coding or technical expertise. Let’s get started!!

What is a Pop-up TV Channel

A Pop-up TV channel is a temporary broadcast channel created to deliver specialized content for a limited time duration. These channels are often launched to broadcast exclusive coverage of live event streams such as concerts, trade shows, exhibitions, sports, etc, and hence are also termed as event channels.

Pop-up TV channels also supplement the regular lineup of online TV channels by filling the programming gaps with specialized broadcasts such as movie marathons, short videos, or exclusive holiday-themed content. 

The primary goal of launching a pop-up channel is to provide viewers with a series of curated programming that aligns with their viewing habits as well as interests during the broadcast period. Once the special programming for events or campaigns concludes, the pop-up channel gets decommissioned automatically, leaving viewers eager for the next pop-up experience.

Popular Examples of Pop-up TV channels

The pop-up experience is not new. Many renowned Broadcast Television Networks have been launching pop-up channels for a long time. BBC Network operated a temporary Olympics-dedicated channel while Sony Pictures featured a Christmas-themed channel every year during Christmas.

During the Covid era, Pluto TV launched three new pop-up playouts, each dedicated to a specific show and purpose – The Hills (promoting the show’s upcoming reboot), Teen Mom, and SpongeBob Squarepants (celebrating the show’s 20th anniversary).

Paramount+ also launched a pop-up channel on VIZIO’s WatchFree+ offering free access to select episodes of fan-favorite series. Even Samsung TV Plus created a children’s favorite Pop-up TV channel during the summer holidays, featuring kids-themed content such as Miraculous and Bakugan.

How Pop-Up Channels are Different From Online TV Channels

Although both are cloud-based broadcast TV channels that require a cloud playout solution for launch, the major difference lies in their time frame. Pop-up TV channels are short-lived and auto-disappear once the programming schedule is over, but in a cloud-based Linear TV channel, the programming timeline is endless and continues as per the scheduler set by the broadcaster. 

Pop-up Channels are built for specific topics and specific content with a specific timeframe. For example, you can have an exclusive pop-up channel for the promotions of the upcoming movie, Mission Impossible (The Final Reckoning), and once the movie is released in theatres, your channel will be decommissioned.

Benefits of Launching a Pop-up TV Channel

Before you dive into the technicalities of creating a pop-up TV channel using playout automation software, it’s important to understand why you need a pop-up channel. What are the advantages that you can embrace with pop-up playouts? Is it worth investing time and money in launching a pop-up TV platform for your audiences? 

Let’s explore the best possibilities. 

• On-The-Fly Launch: Pop-up Channels are instantly created using playout automation platforms like Muvi Playout. These channels can be launched easily with a limited budget and at short notice for any specific event or occasion. This allows broadcasters to quickly deploy pop-up TV channels on trending topics and news without missing out on the opportunity.

• Regain Your Audience’s Attention: Viewers’ content consumption habits are changing. With short attention spans and infinite scrolling habits, audiences are looking for short bursts of entertainment similar to videos on social media feeds. Pop-up channels cater to this changing viewing habit by delivering event-specific themed programming that strongly resonates with audiences’ interests, enabling them to stick to the screen and not look for further options.

• Create a Sense of Urgency among viewers: Pop-up TV channels create buzz and exclusivity. These playout channels come with limited time availability and hence create a sense of urgency among viewers that instantly encourages them to tune into the channel before it disappears.

• Better Scope for delivering Personalized Content: Pop-up TV channels serve as the best medium for delivering tailored programming that meets the needs of specific viewers. For example, India TV launched an exclusive pop-up channel for Maha Kumbh, allowing spiritual seekers to connect with the rituals, celebrations, and energy of the biggest spiritual confluence from the comfort of their home.

Pop-up playout channels are also a great way to test out new content formats. These are quick and easy to create and have a low cost, allowing broadcasters to experiment with new markets, genres, or ideas, and find out which type of broadcast programming resonates the best with their audience’s interests.

A great example of a Pop-up TV channel’s success would be Disney+. In late 2019, the media company launched its video streaming service as a pop-up channel on different platforms, before actually going live. This helped Disney+ collect real-time feedback from the viewers and make necessary platform changes before launching its service worldwide.

Practical Use Cases of Creating a Pop-up TV Channel

Pop-up TV channels serve a multitude of real-time applications for both businesses and broadcasters. You can create a pop-up TV channel for the following scenarios:

• Event Promotions: Whether you want to promote your upcoming events like trade shows, sports matches, or religious practices, a pop-up playout best fits your online broadcasting needs. You can use the channel to feature your exhibitors, itineraries, participant details, guest talks, interviews, etc., giving viewers a sneak peek of what’s going to happen in your event.

• Holiday-Themed Special Programming: Pop-up TV channels can be used to feature exclusive content offerings for special occasions like Christmas, Halloween, summer breaks, or weekends. From movie marathons to summer holiday programmes for kids and live church celebrations, schedule and stream everything on your own-branded pop-up TV channel.

• Branding & Product promotions: If you’re a business or brand, planning to promote your product or services before they actually get launched, then creating a Pop-up TV channel can help you set a strong online presence at minimal investment. You can share the product demos, marketing videos, use case videos, and all the info related to your product on the pop-up playout, allowing viewers with similar interests to stream and explore your offerings.

• Election Campaigns: Pop-up TV channels work great for political campaigns. All the agenda, election manifesto, rallies, speeches, and public interactions can be streamed via a pop-up TV channel, enabling viewers with an interest in your political party to stay connected. Many big politicians have leveraged pop-up TV channels in the past and have witnessed high engagement.

Now that you have understood what is a pop-up TV channel and how it’s going to be useful for you, it’s time to learn how to create a pop-up TV channel, that too instantly, without any coding or technical knowledge. Let’s explore!!

How To Create a Pop-Up TV Channel Instantly – Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Define the Objective of your Pop-up TV Channel

Have a clarity on why you want to start a pop-up channel. Do you need to broadcast live soccer leagues or want to promote your upcoming tradeshow or product launch? Remember, a pop-up TV channel comes with a limited time period, it can be for 2 hours, 2 days, or 2 weeks. Once the programming time is over, the channel will disappear from the broadcast network. So, first define the very objective of your channel and accordingly determine its niche and time period.

Step 2: Find an End-to-End Cloud-Playout Platform

Pop-up TV channels need to be launched on the fly. To catch up with the trending topics and serve quick time-to-market needs, it’s essential to create a pop-up TV instantly. With cloud-based playout automation platforms like Muvi Playout, you can launch your exclusive pop-up channel within minutes – no coding or technical expertise required. Moreover, playout automation platforms are fully equipped – from Cloud Hosting, Content Delivery Networks, Encoding Engine, to Scheduler, EPG, and Video Player – everything comes pre-built. 

Step 3: Curate Personalized Content For Your Pop-up Channel

Every pop-up TV channel serves a specific purpose and a targeted audience. If your channel is about tourism, then you should restrict your content to travel & tourism only, and not movies & entertainment. This allows interested viewers to stick to your programming until it ends. We suggest selecting relevant content from your library or simply creating new content or videos that align with your channel’s theme.

Step 4: Add Your Pop-up TV channel and Manage Content

As every essential component needed for starting an online TV channel is already configured into the playout automation platform, you just need to create a pop-up TV channel – name it and add your logo. Once the channel setup is done, you can start uploading your curated content to the media library and organizing it with categories and metadata.

Step 5: Schedule your Pop-up Channel Programings

Using the drag and drop scheduler, it’s important to plan your pop-up channel’s programming. Add as much content as you want and schedule the broadcast sequence with start and end times. Remember, once the broadcast programming is over, your pop-up TV channel will be decommissioned automatically. Hence, we strongly suggest specifying your channel’s time restrictions wisely.

Step 6: Generate HLS URL and Share Your Pop-up TV Channel

An HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) link is a must for any online TV channel. You can generate it easily from the CMS, copy it, and embed it on your website, apps, or any video player for playback. Before sharing your channel with viewers, please stream it on multiple devices such as mobile, smart TVs, desktop, etc., and check if the programming is in the correct sequence or not.

Launch Your Pop-up TV Channel with Muvi Playout at Minimal Investment

Muvi Playout offers a comprehensive cloud-based playout automation solution for launching and managing pop-up TV channels. With features like drag-and-drop scheduling, real-time analytics, and customizable branding, Muvi Playout simplifies the process, allowing you to focus on delivering personalized content to your audience across the world. 

Whether it’s for a special event, promotional campaign, or seasonal programming, Muvi Playout provides the tools necessary for a successful pop-up channel launch.

Why Choose Muvi Playout?

• Instant Deployment: Launch your channel in minutes
• Low-Cost: Pay per usage only – like the storage & bandwidth consumption
• Zero-coding: No technical expertise or IT team required
• Multi-Platform Streaming: Reach your audience across web, mobile apps, and smart TVs
• Scalable Infrastructure: Built on AWS CloudFront CDN
• Robust Security: Protect your content with built-in Multi-DRM security
• Comprehensive Monetization: Integrate various ad formats, including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads

Recommended Reads:

How to Start a TV Network: A Comprehensive Guide (2025)

The Role of Cloud Playout Software for Linear TVs

How Automated Scheduling can Help Playout Management?

The Ultimate Guide To Muvi’s Cloud Playout CMS

Getting Started With Muvi Playout