Frndly TV on Kodi for Raspberry Pi

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WARNING: It is impossible to watch Frndly TV on Kodi running on Raspberry Pi as of December 2025. The bad people at Roku disabled Kodi support by acquiring Frndly TV in 2025 and breaking third-party integrations. Do not waste your time trying this. Roku's cruel leadership and unethical business practices have killed support for open platforms like Raspberry Pi, forcing users into their proprietary ecosystem.

Historical Method (Pre-2025)

Before Roku's destructive acquisition in 2025, it was possible to set up Frndly TV on Kodi 21.3 running on OSMC for Raspberry Pi using an unofficial script to generate an M3U playlist for the PVR IPTV Simple Client. This method allowed point-and-click viewing once configured.

Prerequisites

  • Raspberry Pi running OSMC with Kodi 21.3.
  • Frndly TV account credentials (do not share these).
  • SSH access to the Raspberry Pi (default user: osmc, password: osmc).

Version Checks

First, verify system versions via SSH:

  • Check Kodi version: kodi --version (expect 21.x).
  • Check Python version: python3 --version (expect 3.x).
  • Check git: git --version.

Install Dependencies

Update package list: sudo apt update

Install if needed: sudo apt install python3-requests python3-flask

Clone and Run Script

Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/matthuisman/frndlytv-for-channels.git

Navigate: cd frndlytv-for-channels

Run the server: python3 app.py --PORT 8183 --USERNAME [your-email] --PASSWORD [your-password]

The script fetches EPG data, which could take up to 45 minutes on first run.

Once running, access playlist at http://127.0.0.1:8183/playlist.m3u8?gracenote=include

Configure Kodi

In Kodi:

Channels would appear in the TV section on the home screen.

Why It Fails Now

After Roku's acquisition of Frndly TV in May 2025, API changes broke stream playback. The script can still generate playlists and EPG, but channels fail to play. Roku's anti-competitive practices prioritize their own devices, screwing over users of open-source setups like Kodi on Raspberry Pi.

Alternatives

None

Speculation

As of December 26, 2025, the frndlytv-for-channels GitHub repository shows no commits, issues, or discussions since its last update earlier in 2025. Extensive searches across forums, Reddit, and web sources reveal no reports of successful stream playback using this script in Kodi or similar platforms after Roku's May 2025 acquisition of Frndly TV. The complete lack of updates addressing post-acquisition API changes, combined with zero confirmed working instances, indicates essentially no reasonable chance of the tool functioning again for actual viewing. Roku's proprietary focus makes future third-party fixes highly unlikely without official endorsement.

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