Build Your Schedule Free, Hit Run When You're Ready
On playout.video, calendar building is free on every plan and only running the automation is paid. Here is how to use that to design, rehearse, and validate a whole programmed channel before spending anything.
The Split That Makes This Possible
With the new plans, the Calendar is split down a clean line:
Building a schedule: creating scheduled streams, adding entries, recurring blocks, playlist swaps, auto start/stop settings, works on every plan, including Free.
Running that schedule, letting playout.video start, drive, and stop your channel automatically, is what the Channel plan ($39/mo annual) unlocks.
Most gated features make you pay to find out if you want them. This one lets you finish the entire design first. Here's a practical way to use that.
Step 1: Program a Full Week on Free
Create a scheduled stream and build your actual week, not a toy version:
Block out your anchor shows first: the fixed-time commitments (Sunday service, Tuesday interview, daily 8am news block)
Fill the gaps with looping content: playlists that play between anchors
Add recurrence so the week repeats itself: Recurring Schedules: Set Once, Run Forever
Decide your off-air policy: does the channel run 24/7 with fallback content, or sign on and off around windows? Configure Auto-Start and Auto-Stop accordingly
At this point you have a complete, inspectable channel: every hour accounted for, every transition defined.
Step 2: Rehearse the Content Itself
Still free:
Run your playlists on a regular (non-calendar) stream to check pacing and transitions. Free gives you 5-hour sessions at 1080p30, plenty for rehearsal
Design your overlays and save them as templates so every show carries your brand: Creating and Managing Overlay Templates
If your programming includes live shows, rehearse them in Live Studio with a co-host
The one thing you cannot do yet is let the calendar drive. That's deliberate: unattended automation is the paid product.
Step 3: Sanity-Check the Design
Before you put a channel on autopilot, walk the schedule and ask:
What plays at 3am? Every gap either has content or an intentional off-air window. No accidental dead air.
Do the anchors have lead time? A few minutes of auto-start lead lets the stream warm up before the show block begins.
Is the recurrence right? Weekly shows on weekly recurrence, daily blocks on daily. One-off events as one-offs, so they don't haunt next week.
Does the fallback fit the brand? Whatever plays when nothing is scheduled should still look like your channel.
Step 4: Upgrade and Press Run
When the design holds up, upgrade to Channel under Settings → Subscription. Your calendar is already built; the upgrade just turns the key. From that moment the channel starts on schedule, swaps playlists on time, and signs off when it's supposed to, whether or not you're at the keyboard.
That first unattended week is the real test, and you'll pass it, because you did the design work while it was free.
Why We Built It This Way
A programmed channel is a commitment: to your audience, and of your money. The worst version of that commitment is one you made blind. Letting the whole design phase happen on Free means the only thing you're paying for is the thing only we can do: keeping your schedule on air, reliably, without you.