New required metadata fields

In order to make your content visible in a set of European countries, you will need to provide the country of origin, production country, and the original spoken locale for transactional and Apple TV Channels video content by September 1, 2020. 

In order to make your content visible in Colombia, you will need to provide the country of origin for your transactional and Apple TV Channels video content by September 1, 2020. 

For more details, review the FAQ below.

Which services are affected? Transactional TV, movies, and Apple TV Channels. Bonus episodes, concert films, and sporting events are included.

Which services are not affected? Streaming apps integrated into the Apple TV app.

Which countries are affected? Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Colombia (CO), Croatia (HR), Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), Hungary (HU), Iceland (IS), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Liechtenstein (LI), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), Norway (NO), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), and United Kingdom (GB).

What fields are required and when will they go into effect for each service? For European countries, country of origin, production country, and original spoken locale are all required for TV episodes, TV seasons, and movies. For Colombia, country of origin is required for TV episodes, TV seasons, and movies.

For transactional movies and TV, refer to the Apple Transactional Film Specification and Apple Transactional TV Specification for details. The fields are available to transactional partners as of July 1, 2020. 

For Apple TV Channels, the fields will be defined in the 3.6.1 UMC Catalog Data Interface Specification and will be published on July 22, 2020. Until then, contact your Technical Partner Rep for details.

When will the new fields be enforced for the listed countries? Fields will be enforced on a system level on September 1, 2020.

Does this affect new content only or my entire catalog? It affects all content made available in the countries listed above.

How can I deliver or update the fields? The fields can be delivered through iTunes Connect and Transporter for transactional content, or through the UMC catalog feed for Apple TV Channels. Note that original spoken locale for transactional TV episodes and movies can only be updated through Transporter.  

What is the definition of country of origin? Country of origin refers to where the content is primarily produced, where the main authors and workers reside, or where the main producer is established. Such determination must be made in accordance with applicable law. You must specify at least one country of origin and that country should be the primary country of origin. You can supply additional countries as needed. This may differ from the production country, which is the country that provided most of the funds for production. Both the country of origin and production country are required.

What is the definition of production country? This is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country that is the primary source of funds for the film or TV content production. You must specify at least one production country and that country should be the country that provided most of the funds (for example, from national lotteries and other subsidies). You can supply additional countries as needed.

This is not the same as the country of origin, which is the country where the content originates from in accordance with applicable law. Both the country of origin and production country are required.

What is the definition of original spoken locale? This specifies the language spoken by the actors in the film, episode, or season. The value used for locale is not case-sensitive. For example, if the language is English as spoken in the United Kingdom, en-GB must be specified as the original spoken locale. For Apple TV Channels, additional languages can be supplied as needed.

As a best practice when specifying a language, use the region subtag (for example, the GB of en-GB) only when it conveys helpful information, such as spelling variations between countries. In cases where specifying a region is appropriate, use a hyphen to combine a language subtag with a region subtag. This identifies both the language and the specific location where the language is used.