A Channel is the outer container which is displayed on the player. A Channel consists of multiple zones. You can assign a Playlist or Object to a Channel Zone.
Each Channel can contain multiple types of content like Playlist, Objects according to your requirements. When a playlist is assigned to a channel zone, the zone will display all the assets in the playlist based on the order configured in the playlist.
You can also assign an object to the channel zone. DS CMS contains a repository of pre-defined Channel Templates which can be selected easily to build a channel.