What Is Linear TV? The Difference Between Linear TV Vs OTT (2026 Updated)

Here is what Linear TV means in practice, why it matters for linear and FAST channels, and how to put it to work without rebuilding your stack from scratch.

The workflow behind Linear TV

Channels can be monetized with FAST advertising and distributed to apps, smart TVs and aggregators alongside your on-demand catalog.

A schedule sequences on-demand assets, live feeds and ad breaks into a continuous channel with an electronic program guide. Cloud playout assembles the stream and inserts ads dynamically, so you run TV-style channels without a broadcast facility.

What you gain

• Drag-and-drop scheduling with an electronic program guide
• Mix live feeds, on-demand assets and graphics in one channel
• Dynamic ad insertion into linear breaks
• Cloud playout for 24/7 linear and FAST channels

The LinqTV approach

LinqTV Live provides redundant RTMP and SRT ingest, low-latency delivery, live DVR and automatic recording to on-demand, built for event-grade reliability.

Running these capabilities on one platform lowers total cost of ownership and removes the integration debt of stitching separate vendors together.

Practical considerations

• Mark ad breaks accurately for clean dynamic insertion
• Repurpose your VOD library to fill linear airtime cost-effectively
• Build deep schedules so channels never run empty

Frequently asked questions

How is global performance handled?

Adaptive bitrate, edge caching and multi-CDN routing maintain quality for international audiences and high-concurrency events.

Does it work for both live and on-demand?

Yes. The platform supports live events, on-demand catalogs, audio and linear channels with shared identity, billing and analytics.

Next steps

Ready to put linear and FAST channels to work? Explore LinqTV One for an end-to-end streaming platform, or talk to our team for a tailored walkthrough of how Linear TV fits your roadmap. The links below are a good place to start.