Uptime for IPTV is not "did the server respond" — it is "did a real stream play without interruption". Here is our exact definition.
We define a service as "up" for a given 60-second poll window if: (1) the Xtream Codes API (or M3U endpoint) responded with a 200 in under 5 seconds, (2) the primary playlist URL returned a valid M3U body, and (3) a sample channel played without buffering for the entire 60-second window.
All three conditions must pass. A service whose API responds 200 but whose streams stutter is not scored as up.
Monday 11am local time and Saturday 8:30pm local time are not equal for IPTV users — peak congestion periods reveal provider infrastructure quality in ways daytime polling hides. We weight peak-window uptime 3x in the composite score.
SLA-style "99.9% uptime" numbers are marketing-friendly but mostly meaningless for IPTV. 99.9% uptime is 8.76 hours of downtime per year. If all 8.76 hours fall during peak Saturday sports, the service is unusable. We report separate peak-window and off-peak uptime figures so subscribers can see both.