Support

Prime Video requires content rights to be submitted in the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) Avails Specification. Prime Video supports EMA XLS Avails, version 1.6, 1.7.2, and 1.7.3. The maximum size of EMA 1.6, 1.7.2, and 1.7.3 avails supported by Prime Video is 60,000 rows.

Note: SVOD titles may require content rights information to be submitted in Advanced Title Data (ADT).

The EMA Avails templates include instructions for completion. The following Prime Video rules supersede the instructions on the template:

• EntryType Rules: Only Full Extract and Full Delete submissions are accepted.

  Full Extract means that new avail entries replace all current and future avail entries within the same scope. Prime Video defines scope as the unique combination of licensor, unique ID, territory, and the rights model (e.g., TVOD, SVOD, etc.). A unique ID is represented by an Alt ID in EMA v1.6 and an ALID in EMA v1.7.

  Full Extract requires that all of your current and future avail entries are provided for a scope. When Full Extract avails are submitted, Prime Video replaces all current and future avail information for a given scope. Full Extract allows a content partner to expire a license on a future date.

  Submitting a Full Delete causes all avail records of that scope to be removed from Prime Video systems. Even though a Full Delete indicates that all rights for a given scope are removed, if the Prime Video internal publishing workflows create an offer, a Full Delete isn't sufficient to automatically expire content and remove it from customer availability. Content providers should deliver a Full Extract avail with an appropriate date in the End field to take down titles with existing offers. Only use the Full Delete function to remove erroneous avail files for content that hasn't received matching metadata (e.g., if an incorrect Alt ID was used to attempt to modify an avail).

  Prime Video defines the rights model using both LicenseType and GroupIdentity. The LicenseType field specifies whether content is intended for TVOD or SVOD. Entries intended for TVOD never extract or delete entries intended for SVOD.

  The GroupIdentity field within EMA v1.7.3 specifies whether content is intended for first-party SVOD (Prime Video) or third-party SVOD (Prime Video Channels). Entries intended for Prime Video SVOD never extract or delete entries intended for Prime Video Channels. This also means that content partners must be mindful of all channels they deliver for when submitting Channels rights. If you have a title available in more than one Prime Video Channel in a single territory, you must include details for both titles when sending a Full Extract submission, because both Channels are within the same scope.

• Language Fields: Use RFC 5646 language codes. Additionally, Prime Video supports appending :sub, :dub, :subdub, or :any after any language code to specify the type of asset associated with it. For example, if Prime Video is meant to hold back Latin American Spanish timed text in a certain territory, the associated HoldbackLanguage field should contain es-419:sub. Multiple languages can be included in all language fields; use commas to separate them. Note that the AllowedLanguage/HoldbackExclusionLanguage field and HoldbackLanguage field can't be used together.
• Price Fields: PriceType and PriceValue are required for all TVOD (EST/VOD) rights and specific requirements vary by contract type. You can input “NA” in both PriceType and PriceValue fields where contractual terms are based on a fixed revenue-share %. You may optionally add a Suggested Retail Price in the SRP column.

  If your contract includes any variance in terms at content-type or title level, please follow the guidance below on acceptable inputs. If in any doubt, please confirm with your Account Manager.

  PriceType denotes the type of cost terms that apply. PriceType can vary across content-types (e.g. Movie EST can differ from Movie VOD) but all titles within a given content type (e.g. all Movie EST) must have the same PriceType.

  PriceValue is content specific and denotes the actual cost terms that apply to a given title in a given window.

  Depending on contractual terms, these two fields are used differently:

  • For wholesale-cost terms, PriceType should be set to WSP and PriceValue should be a monetary value e.g. 4.50, 8.99, 20.00. Non-numeric values aren’t accepted and any invalid characters will be rejected. If you prefer to use PriceType = Tier for wholesale costs, please confirm with your Account Manager.
  • For revenue-share terms, PriceType should be set as either Tier or Category. In general, Tier is used where terms are title specific (i.e. title A has different terms to title B), and Category is used where terms are not title specific (i.e. all titles within a given ‘category’ – e.g. New Release VOD – have the same terms). For both Tier and Category, the inputs for PriceValue can be defined by you (examples of acceptable inputs include: ‘Tier 1’, ‘New Release-1’, ‘NR’, ‘PVOD’, ‘Library’, ‘LIB’) BUT these inputs must be approved with your Account Manager and, once agreed, no other values can be used without prior agreement.

  PriceCurrency specifies the currency of the monetary values input in the PriceValue field for titles with PriceType WSP, and/or for monetary values input in the SRP field. This field can be left empty if the PriceType is not WSP, and SRP is empty.

  SRP specifies the Suggested Retail Price. If you wish to supply an SRP for your titles, you can do so by using the SRP column utilizing only numerical values.

• Avails Metadata vs. Title Metadata: Descriptive title information (e.g., title, rating, director, etc.) are always be pulled from the associated title metadata submission, and not content rights.
• Title Matching via Unique IDs: When used, the AltID, ALID, and ContentID (in v1.7.x) must be identical. This is how Prime Video matches content rights to asset metadata and title metadata.
• Controlled Codes: Prime Video accepts a number of controlled codes for territories, languages, time, currencies, and other concepts. These codes aren't managed by Prime Video but allow for automation.

• Start and End Terms: Specifies the length of time ("license window") content will be available on Prime Video. Start date is mandatory, but start and end times are optional. Also, if you don't enter an end date, content will be available on Prime Video indefinitely. Any future dates entered into the system must not exceed the year 9998. The following rules are required when submitting start and end dates and/or start and end times.

  • If you provide start and end dates without times, the end date must be no less than one day later than the start date.
  • If you provide start and end date with times, both dates can be the same day but start time must be earlier than the end time.
  
  A specific time may be supplied by using the required time format followed by the letter Z to indicate UTC (Zulu) time (2019-01-01T00:00:00Z). Also, offsets from UTC can be used to specify time zones. For example, 7:00 a.m. Standard Time in New York would be represented as: 2019-01-01T07:00:00-05:00 (UTC minus five hours). Any rights submitted without a specific time references will be made available on Prime Video based on auto-calculated rules as documented in the below table.

• Pre-Orders: To create pre-order offers, POEST and EST Avails must be submitted together. If not submitted together, the Avails will fail ingestion (effective March 31, 2023).

Avails delivery method

Avails are delivered via Aspera. For more information, see Delivery Methods. Make sure to follow the file naming rules.

Content rights field list

The table below summarizes the available Content Rights fields along with Prime Video-specific notes.

Accepted Values lists the acceptable values or indicates the type of value expected for each field. If left blank, it indicates a string is acceptable. All inputs are limited to UTF-8 characters. Prime Video Usage indicates whether the field is required, optional, or not used by Amazon.

The following table and notes are in addition to the documentation and definitions provided by MovieLabs. Should any conflict occur between the two, notes and guidelines provided below are considered definitive for deliveries to Prime Video.

¹ Indicates that a field was introduced in EMA v1.7+.

² The purpose of all ContentID fields have transitioned from fields that identify EIDR values in EMA v1.6 to fields that identify the Title Metadata files in EMA v1.7+. Proper mapping will be performed by Amazon based on versions of EMA inputs.

Currency map per territory

If a content provider submits avails for a territory without a default currency mapped, a default currency will be added to versions EMA 1.7+ and EMA 1.6 avails per the following currency-to-territory mapping table: