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Artwork requirements

The Apple TV app is an immersive experience, driven by artwork that looks great on every device. Artwork appears throughout the app, including the canonical page, Up Next previews, featured promotions, and other curated areas. As part of your content delivery to Apple, you’ll provide artwork assets and metadata. All artwork that you submit or that is submitted on your behalf, must comply with the policies and guidelines outlined below. Apple reserves the right to reject, remove, or modify noncompliant artwork. Artwork must also comply with the specifications that vary from product to product.

It’s important to remember that canonical pages are comprised of data from multiple sources to present viewers with content in all the places it is available. In some cases, metadata and images on the Apple TV app may be different from what is provided by a given partner.

This article covers the following topics:


General policies and best practices

Artwork must represent the movie, TV show, TV season, or TV episode for which it was submitted, and be the current version of the artwork at the time of submission. It must also be appropriate for display in every region where it will be shown. Apple may reject artwork for use in certain countries or regions due to local sensitivities, regulations, or restrictions.

While artwork must be representative of the title, it must also be appropriate for use on Apple’s platforms, products, and software for each country or region in which it is shown.

Artwork may be rejected entirely or on a region-by-region basis if it includes any of the following:

  • References to illegal activities (including drugs), profanity, or violence.
  • Content that would reasonably be construed as racist, misogynist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful.
  • Gratuitous or otherwise inappropriate references to alcohol, sexual activity, violence, gore, or weaponry.
  • Third-party trademarks, trade dress, or copyrighted material without authorization or usage rights.
  • Gratuitous or irrelevant hardware such as computers, TVs, phones, headphones, or other devices that are prominently featured, unrelated to the title or to any character, and included without the manufacturer’s permission (including that of Apple, where applicable).

Third-party content

  • Artwork may not include Apple logos or trademarks.
  • Except where specifically agreed to in writing by you and Apple, artwork may not include extraneous text or graphics, including credit blocks, critic quotes, award references (including award logos or trademarks), pricing or availability language (for example, “Limited Price,” “Exclusive,” “Available for $*_*,” or release dates), URLs or social media addresses, social media handles, hashtags, or references to physical packaging (for example, DVD or Blu-ray) or digital features (for example, HDR or UHD).

Cover artwork with studio logo

  • Original content creator studio logo is permitted on artwork without country restriction.
  • isOriginal tag must be set to true in the catalog feed for that item.
  • Images must meet minimum resolution, size, and format.

Artwork best practices

  • Artwork must be representative of the correct movie, TV show, TV season, or TV episode.
  • Artwork should not be upscaled or cropped to fit required dimensions as to affect the quality of the artwork. Do not increase the size of a smaller image to meet the minimum size standard.
  • Artwork should use the full size of the canvas.
  • Artwork should not be blurry or pixelated; excessively blurry or pixelated images will be rejected.
  • Artwork should not be a placeholder graphic or blank.
  • If any previously delivered artwork is changed in the catalog feed, a new URL must be provided for the new artwork to be ingested.

Required artwork and templates

Apple will generally expect the following artwork assets to be supplied with content that is slated to be featured.

16:9 cover art

Appearing on the product page for a movie or TV show, this artwork uses the full width of the device. It’s displayed throughout the Apple TV app and when a customer is browsing content. For best practices, title treatment must be included, but no extraneous text is allowed. TV show artwork should be season-agnostic and not include season number.

Spec

  • File type: LSR, PNG, or JPG (quality unconstrained)
  • Minimum size for PNG and JPG: 1920 x 1080 pixels but 3840 x 2160 pixels preferred
  • Minimum size for LSR: 3840 x 2160 pixels
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits

Sample and template

Download 16:9 cover art template

Poster cover art

This artwork is displayed for movies in Spotlight and iOS searches.

Spec

  • File type: LSR, PNG, or JPG (quality unconstrained)
  • Minimum size: 2000 x 3000 pixels
  • Aspect ratio: 2:3
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits
  • Color space: RGB (CMYK images will not be accepted)

Sample and template 

Download poster cover art template

Tile/keyframe art

Tile/keyframe artwork is a 16:9 image that is representative of a movie, TV show, or TV episode and should be a keyframe from the playable asset or a production still. It’s displayed in the episode picker and when scrolling through the Up Next row. This artwork should not include any brand, content logos or text.

Spec

  • File type: LSR, PNG, or JPG (quality unconstrained)
  • Size: 3840 x 2160 pixels
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits

Sample and template

Download tile/keyframe artwork template

Backdrop wide art

The backdrop wide image is used on iPad and in tvOS and fills the entire screen or device.

Spec

  • File type: PNG
  • Size: 4320 x 3240 pixels
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits

Sample and template

Download backdrop wide template

Backdrop tall art

The backdrop tall image is used on iPhones.

Spec

  • File type: PNG
  • Size: 1680 x 3636 pixels
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits

Sample and template 

Download backdrop tall template

Full color content logo

The show’s logo displays prominently on the page. Logos are constrained based on the height or width of the image. As a best practice, it should be scaled as large as possible and centered in the template. Don’t leave negative space around the logo, skew the logo, or place it in a container.

Spec

  • File type: Transparent PNG
  • Size: 4320 x 1300 pixels
  • Resolution: 72 dpi
  • Color profile: Display P3 (strongly preferred) or sRGB
  • Bit depth: 8 or 16 bits

Sample and template 

Download full color content logo template

Review the full specifications for each artwork type and how to supply this artwork. For Channels providers and partners in the Apple Video Partner Program, refer to the UMC Catalog Artwork Requirements. If you have any questions, reach out to your Apple Technical Partner Representative or Apple Video Business contact.


Tagging artwork locales

Any artwork with text should also have a locale associated with it that represents the language of the text. If you’re supplying artwork with localized titles, ensure the titles match the localized title elements supplied for the item in the catalog feed.

Based on the best practices noted above, generally, the only acceptable text is the content title, which should be provided on cover artwork and the content logo.

To inform the language of the artwork supplied in the catalog feed, apply a locale attribute to the artwork element. Locale values should be provided in BCP-47 format, and if multiple locales apply to a single artwork asset, they can be applied to a single artwork element as a comma-separated list in the locales attribute.

<artwork url="https://www.acme.com/coverartwork1930.jpg" type="cover_artwork_horizontal" locales="en,en-US,en-CA"/>

If you have more than one artwork asset of the same type, but each artwork has different locales, supply each artwork asset as its own artwork element with a different locale:

<artwork url="https://www.acme.com/coverartwork1930-EN.jpg" type="cover_artwork_horizontal" locales="en-CA"/>
<artwork url="https://www.acme.com/coverartwork1930-FR.jpg" type="cover_artwork_horizontal" locales="fr-CA"/>

Missing locales will be presumed to be non-localized artwork applicable worldwide. If a content item has multiple artwork assets with different locales, the Apple TV app will generally display the locale based on the viewer’s device language settings if available.

Find more information about properly tagging artwork in the artwork element section of the Item Schema Definition.

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