The all-new Apple TV app brings together the different ways to discover and watch shows, movies, sports, news and more in one app across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, smart TVs and streaming devices. Customers can subscribe to Apple TV channels à la carte and watch them in the Apple TV app, with no additional apps, accounts or passwords required — all on demand, available on and offline, with incredible picture quality and sound.
This guide includes:
Basic requirements for integrating your channel with the Apple TV app
Information on documents and tools to help with the process
A step-by-step guide for setting up your channel in the Apple TV app
Important Task Checklist
To set up your channel, you must:
Provide brand information and network logos per Apple’s specification.
Complete catalog feed development and validation. The catalog feed includes rich metadata and artwork for your content.
Complete availability feed development and validation.
Complete qualification of video, audio and timed text assets.
Complete asset package deliveries for your content.
Getting Started
Registration, Development, and Delivery
The goal of this step-by-step guide is to assist your team in creating a project plan that will contain dates and timelines so you can coordinate release efforts with Apple.
Brand Registration
A brand is a set of Video On-Demand services that can be grouped under a single marketing entity. A subscription VOD service identifies a catalog of VOD content that can be made available to customers who are authorized within your service.
To set up your brand, provide the following information to your Apple Technical Partner Representative:
Adopt the UMC Catalog Data Interface Specification (“Catalog Feed”) and the UMC Availability Data Interface Specification (“Availability Feed”). The Catalog Feed includes factual information for the content available in your app (such as Title, Description, Release Date, and Artwork). The Availability Feed describes when (via window definitions and restrictions) a user can access content from the Catalog Feed.
Use the provided XSD and Media Feed Validator to validate the structure of your XML. Ensure that your feed contains no XSD errors and no Media Feed Validator “Errors” or “Warnings.” Once achieved, be certain that your Catalog Feed complies with the UMC Standards and Style Guide to ensure your content meets Apple quality standards
Provide Apple with URLs that can be used to consume your Availability and Catalog feeds per service.
Apple will evaluate the XML structure, content, and metadata quality of your feeds for any issues not found by Media Feed Validator and provide a report with requested fixes.
Once all Must Fix issues have been resolved, Apple will ingest your feed into the Universal Media Catalog in “Isolation Mode”. This mode will simulate mapping to our existing metadata references and will allow us to validate the quality of your metadata. Apple’s Metadata Ops team will analyze the results of this ingestion and will provide a report categorizing any issues found as Must Fix or Should Fix.
Once all Must Fix issues have been resolved, Apple will ingest your feed into the Universal Media Catalog.
Asset Package Deliveries
Provide required information to set up an encoding house account. Contact your Apple Technical Partner Representative for more information.
Install Transporter and review the Transporter User Guide for set up requirements and instructions. Transporter is a command line tool you will use to verify and upload your asset packages.
Prepare a minimum of 5 test titles that represents a range of content from your catalog that meets requirements per the Subscription Video Specification.
Important: Make sure the catalog ID in the metadata.xml file matches the feed.
Upload your test packages through Transporter. Your Apple Technical Partner Representative will provide instructions for delivery.
Apple will evaluate the quality of the assets and provide feedback with a report categorizing fixes as Must Fix and Should Fix.
Once all Must Fix issues have been resolved, you will be approved to commence delivery into your provider account.
Checklist Guidelines and Workflow
Quality is important at Apple and we expect to receive the highest-quality assets available. Our product must meet or exceed the quality of existing service offerings in the marketplace.
To help partners deliver quality assets, we provide a consistent workflow and checklists that can be used throughout the process. Use guidelines to identify areas to review prior to delivery to Apple:
Pre-Qualification as a first-step check
Quality Control Checklists for the content you deliver to us, specifically the video, audio, metadata, and packaging.
Pre-Qualification
To find asset issues early on, do a pre-qualification check before you deliver your content to Apple. This applies particularly to tape or file-based content sources.
Content
How to Verify
Source Quality
Assets must be the highest quality that exist in the marketplace.
Audio
Spot check audio levels, and ensure the language is tagged correctly and is in linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format.
Video File
Spot check the video file for defects at the beginning, middle, and end.
Video Frame Rate
The video's native frame rate must be the same as the source frame rate (HD, PAL, NTSC) and match our specifications.
Taglines, Logos, Legalese
No logos, ratings, advisories, or FBI warnings are allowed.
Native Field Dominance
Determine if the video source is progressive or interlaced, and make sure the tag is accurate in the header information.
Quality Control
Before you deliver your content to us, perform a full linear quality control check. This is a general overview of areas to review. Keep in mind that movie, episode, and preview assets should have separate checklists, since they are separate assets.
Video
Content
How to Verify
Aspect Ratio
Video assets must be the original aspect ratio.
Block Error Clear/Green
Video assets with errors generated by playback machines need to be fixed.
(CC) Sync/Incomplete
Movies and TV episodes for the United States require a closed caption (CC) file that is synchronized and complete. Movies and TV episodes for other English-speaking countries or regions should also include a CC file when available. See closed captions requirements.
Colr, Fiel, Gama Atoms
Atom tags within video asset headers should be set and corrected as needed.
Cropping
Video assets should not be cropped. Proper crop values must be specified in the XML to allow content to be presented properly across Apple devices.
Digital Hits
Examples are rectangular color blocks, or splits within a frame, and are reason for QC.
Dropped/Duplicate Frames
Videos with sequential frames that contain no distinction or movement will be rejected.
Encode/Display Bounds
Video assets must have correct display measurements and can’t distort the aspect ratio.
Interlacing
Interlacing artifacts, or “miniblinds,” must be removed.
Motion/Image Lag
Ghosting effects, moving image doubles, or image overlaps will be rejected.
Subtitles/Forced Narratives
Video assets with subtitles or forced narrative files should be complete, in sync, and correctly translated.
Native Frame Rate
Current frame rates of video assets should match the original native format. If the native format isn’t available, use IVTC (Inverse Telecine) to remove pulldown patterns. See Film Content Profiles.
Video Codec
Video assets must be encoded in ProRes 422 HQ format.
Audio
Content
How to Verify
Audio Missing
The package should include the appropriate audio file (7.1, 5.1, and/or stereo).
Crackle/Hiss/Pop/Static/Ticks
Audio assets must be high quality, without any errors.
Distortion
Audio assets should be clear and not distorted.
Drop Outs
Audio assets can’t drop out during playback.
Dubbed Audio Missing
All dialogues should have language dubs if available.
Labeling
Audio configuration labeling needs to be correct and should include the correct channel designation for 7.1, 5.1, or stereo audio as listed in Table 1: Audio Channel Assignment Labels.
Sync
Audio dialogues and sound effects need to be in sync with the movie’s video's action.
The provider tags should match the Apple-defined label for partner identification. They must match the tag used for Transporter.
Catalog, Content, and Variant ID
The unique catalog and content identifiers for the item need to be included, as well as the variant identifier to distinguish between different versions of the content. For more information, see Subscription Video Asset Specification.
Title
The title should be accurate and match the movie or TV episode.
Textless Master Tag
Provide localized subtitles tags for content with burned‐in subtitles.
Forced Narrative Tag
Forced narrative tags should be reviewed and included, if they are part of the .itmsp package.
Chapters Metadata
Chapter-related metadata should be reviewed thoroughly. For example, review detailed information like tag formatting, locale, order of chapters, and correct time codes.
Tag/Info Missing
Metadata XML files need to be properly formatted and checked programmatically with the right external tools. You can use Transporter in Verify mode. For more information, see Transporter User Guide.
Subtitle Metadata
Content
How to Verify
File Corruption
Check that iTunes Timed Text (iTT) XML files open and aren’t corrupt.
Multi-Language Synchronization
Subtitle synchronization verification is required for the entire video. To validate, use the video source file.
Once you’ve checked all of the areas above, the last step is to check the following packaging areas.
Packaging
Content
How to Verify
Cannot Open/Corrupt File
Make sure asset files in the package can be opened, viewed, and played.
Package Missing Elements
Assets noted in the XML should be present in the actual .itmsp package.
Incomplete File
Verify that all files in the .itmsp package are complete.
Quality Control Resources
Use Subscription Video Asset Specification to help control the quality of your assets, develop a consistent process for your workflow, and to create pre-delivery checklists if needed. In addition to this guide, the resources in Apple TV Channels section of Guides can aid the quality control of your content.
After you’ve created your video content using the above specifications, check out the following guides to assist you with the submission process.
Provide video, audio and timed text assets to our specifications for content in your service offering.
Documentation and Tool Resources
Documentation for Apple TV Channels, as well as tools that will help you deliver your asset packages, can be found in the Channels section within TV Resources and Help. Additional documentation will be distributed by your Apple Technical Partner Representative. Contact your Partner Representative if you have specific questions about the resources available.
Integration Process Diagram
After registering a brand with Apple, you will create and validate the feeds, then the media content data will be integrated. You will also deliver assets for qualification, then complete asset deliveries.
Your channel will launch when Apple validation is complete and everything conforms to the requirements.
