perl foo.pl --channel="1,forever" --channel="2,1:20" \
  --channel="3,2:50" --channel="7,forever"
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use Getopt::Long;
my @channels;
GetOptions('channel=s' => \@channels);
print Dumper(\@channels);
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Getopt::Std;

my %opt;
Get_Args( \%opt );

for ( sort { $a <=> $b } keys %opt ) {
    if ( uc $opt{$_} eq 'F' ) {
        print "Channel $_ is set to Forever\n";
    }
    elsif ( $opt{$_} =~ /^(\d\d?):(\d\d?)/ ) {
        my ($hr, $min) = ($1, $2);
        print "Channel $_ is set to $hr hour(s) and $min minute(s)\n";
    }
    else {
        die "$opt{$_} is not a valid option for channel $_\n";
    }
}

sub Get_Args {
    my $opt = shift;
    my $Usage = qq{Usage: $0 [options] -# <F|HH:MM>
        -h : This help message.
        -# : Channel Number followed by duration
             F     = forever
             HH:MM = Hours and Minutes
    } . "\n";
    my $channels = join ':', 1..10;  # Adjust for the max # of channel
+s
    getopts( "h$channels:" , $opt ) or die $Usage;
    die $Usage if $opt->{h} || ! keys %$opt;
}
[download]

use Getopt::Long;
use Pod::Usage;
use YAML;

my @config;

while (@ARGV) {
    print join(', ',@ARGV) . "\n";
    my %opt;
    shift if $ARGV[0] eq '-';
    GetOptions(
           \%opt,
           'C|channel=i',
           'F|forever',
           'H|hours=i',
           'M|minutes=i',
          ) or pod2usage(2);
    push @config, \%opt;
}

print YAML::Dump(\@config);

__END__

=head Synopsis

>perl tvopt.pl -C 10 -F -- --channel 1 --hours 10 --minutes 20

-C, 10, -F, --, --channel, 1, --hours, 10, --minutes, 20
--channel, 1, --hours, 10, --minutes, 20

--- #YAML:1.0
- C: 10
  F: 1
- C: 1
  H: 10
  M: 20
  
=cut
[download]

To be honest, this sounds complex enough that you want to put it in a config file, not commandline options. I can't even think of a good way to put this on the commandline.

You can pass code references to GetOptions, such as

perl -we 'use Getopt::Long; my @channels; GetOptions("channel=s", sub 
+{ push @channels, {"channel", $_[1]}; }, "forever", sub { $channels[-
+1]{"forever"} = 1; }, "minutes=n", sub { $channels[-1]{"minutes"} = $
+_[1]; }, "hours=n", sub { $channels[-1]{"hours"} = $_[1]; }, ); use D
+ata::Dumper; print Dumper [@channels];' -- -channel 1 -forever -chann
+el 2 -minutes 10 -hours 20 -channel 3 -forever
[download]

$VAR1 = [
          {
            'forever' => 1,
            'channel' => '1'
          },
          {
            'hours' => 20,
            'minutes' => 10,
            'channel' => '2'
          },
          {
            'forever' => 1,
            'channel' => '3'
          }
        ];
[download]

Of course, you may want a different data structure, use whatever is convenient for the rest of your code.

Update: POSIX getopt (and its extension, GNU's getopt_long) has the correct interface: the right way to get options is to call code provided by the developper. The way perl's Getopt and Getopt::Long tries to be smart and store the data in structures automatically is wrong. It sometimes works, but more often it doesn't, just like this example shows it. It's not too difficult for the developper to write simple callbacks sub { $fooswitch = 1 } instead of a reference \$fooswitch, and it offers much more flexibility.