topic Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router in TV

Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

Mark-13 — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 22:18:19 GMT

Evening,

I have just switched to a NetGear ORBI33 Router WiFi 7 due to problems with my EE Router and the broadband speed and network coverage is improved, but I am unable to watch the EE Live TV channels on the EE Box. All the Apps work on the EE Pro Box i.e. streaming Netflix, NOW, BBC, Discovery etc, and I can see the TV channels along with the TV List but I just keeps giving me a failure message when I click on the channel.

I have done a reset on the box, rebooted the WiFi routers etc but I still keep getting the same issue.

Any suggestions please?

Many Thanks

Mark

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

XRaySpeX — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:02:22 GMT

What is the name of the EE BB plan you are on including its speed? Which EE router were you given but have now replaced (read label or post a pix)?

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

Mark-13 — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 08:57:00 GMT

Hi,

My broadband plan is the Full Works: Full Fibre Gigabit and the EE router is Smart Hub SH31B.

Thanks

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

Chris_S — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 12:58:06 GMT

Thanks for letting us know @Mark-13

If you have an Ethernet cable, could you try connecting that to see if it makes any difference to your channels please?

Chris S

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

Mark-13 — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:50:24 GMT

Good Morning Chris,

I am unable to connect the Ethernet cable to the main router but I have one of the ORBI WIFI Extenders next to my TV Pro Box and I have connected this via Ethernet. I have confirmation in the settings that I am connected to the internet, I can watch all the apps on the TV box i.e. Netflix, NOW, etc.. can see the TV Guide and the live stations but again I am getting the same failure message I took on Saturday in the pictures below. Thanks.

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

DarrenDev — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 11:46:20 GMT

Your Orbi router isn't correctly passing the multicast traffic that the TV Box requires to watch TV channels. Various Orbi devices have been discussed on the BT and EE forums previously, and I'm not aware of anyone successfully getting it to work.

You'd need to speak to Orbi directly and ask for their assistance in getting multicast IP TV working through it.

If you manage to get it working, feel free to share the instructions here.

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

Nicholas_rubin — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:08:19 GMT

Hi @Mark-13 sounds like a very similar issue to me. Good news is that I found a solution so I can load live TV channels from the TV Guide, whilst using an Orbi RBR10 router - I'd already summarised my thoughts in a separate post earlier today: https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/TV/Fixed-EE-TV-Error-AAU910-amp-quot-No-Subscription-quot-on-Third/m-p/1592998

However, in your case (as was the case in mine) you may need to swap out the EE TV Box Pro for an Apple TV box. That is, my conversations with EE Tech Support suggest that the EE TV Box requires a direct connection to an EE Smart Hub to unlock the tv guide and live channels. i.e. that the EE TV Box must perform a specific 'handshake' with the EE Router. Our troubleshooting identified that the Apple TV box should allow TV Guide and Live Channels whilst using a third party router. Ultimately this is the case but in my case I needed to do a bit of further troubleshooting with the Apple TV Box which lead me to updating the Internet Settings in my router to reflect the newer/current third-party router settings on the EE website - I suspect this is essential so that the Apple TV box recognises that there is a valid EE account and subscription.

Hope this helps. Really interested to know if with correct Internet settings in the Orbi the EE TV Box Pro TV Guide works.

Re: Connecting EE TV to a NetGear Orbi33 router

DarrenDev — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:30:26 GMT

Ah OK, that explains why yours now works @Nicholas_rubin

The TV Box Pro and TV Box Edge use multicast to deliver the TV channels. This requires that all networking components support multicast traffic, and it appears that Orbi doesn't (despite it being a standard networking feature).

Swapping to an Apple TV means you're using the OTT stream - it's a different way to delivery the video, which works across any internet connection. It's the same way that iPlayer, Netflix, etc deliver their video. It's less efficient and a bit more delayed from live, but handles errors better than multicast.