EMBER Catalog Integration Overview

Catalog integration is the process of submitting your media metadata to Amazon so that customers can discover and play your content across Amazon devices including Fire TV, Echo Show, and other Alexa-enabled devices.

You describe your media content—movies, TV shows, live events, broadcast channels—in a catalog file that conforms to Enhanced Metadata Bridge for Entertainment Resources (EMBER), which is Amazon's XML schema for entertainment content metadata. You then upload this catalog file to an Amazon S3 bucket. After ingestion, Amazon runs content matching processes and consolidates your metadata into a primary content database that powers discovery and playback across multiple devices.

Supported content types

Content type	Description	EMBER elements
Movies	Feature films, documentaries	Movie
TV shows	Series, seasons, episodes	TVSeries, TVSeason, TVEpisode
Sports	Live games, matches, tournaments	SportsEvent
Live events	Concerts, festivals, special performances	Event
Broadcast / linear TV	Live TV channels, FAST channels, 24-hour schedules	Station, Schedule
Extras	Trailers, clips, behind-the-scenes, interviews	Extra

How devices use your catalog

Catalog integration is device-agnostic. You submit one time, and Amazon surfaces your content across all video experiences.

• Fire TV – Universal Search and Browse enables content discovery across all catalog-integrated apps. Customers find your content through search, browse by genre, home screen recommendations, and voice search.
• Echo Show – Customers can discover and play video content from catalog-integrated apps on Echo Show devices.
• Alexa – Voice commands work across all Alexa-enabled devices. When a customer says "Play Interstellar," the system opens the appropriate detail page or begins playback directly.

On all devices, the same catalog content you submit powers the customer experience.

Related integrations

Catalog integration alone doesn't enable full content playback and discovery. You must also complete the following integrations for catalog-integrated content to work correctly on devices. These integrations aren't required to submit catalogs, but you must complete them before Amazon can accept your catalog.

Fire TV launcher

Fire TV launcher integration enables deep links and entitlements for video-on-demand movies, TV shows, and live events. You must complete this integration for your content to appear in Universal Search results, browse pages, and voice-initiated playback.

For details, see Integrate Your App with the Fire TV Launcher.

Linear TV

Linear TV integration enables deep links and entitlements for linear content including stations, channels, and scheduled programming. You must complete this integration for station tuning, channel switching, and live TV guide functionality.

For details, see Introduction to Linear Television.

Integration process at a glance

Catalog integration has the following high-level steps:

• Step 1: Set up your account – Configure AWS access and verify connectivity to start submitting catalogs.
• Step 2: Upload your catalog to staging – Create, validate, and upload your catalog file to the staging environment. Review ingestion reports to address any reported issues.
• Step 3: Test your catalog in staging – Verify your catalog items are discoverable through search, and your offers appear on the content detail page.
• Step 4: Receive catalog acceptance from Amazon – Amazon runs matching and additional testing, and provides feedback. Resolve feedback and iterate until Amazon accepts the catalog.
• Step 5: Upload your catalog to production – Amazon grants production access. You submit to the production environment, then monitor and maintain with regular updates.

Requirements

You need the following content and technical resources to start catalog integration.

Content requirements

• Video content, such as movies, TV shows, live events, broadcast channels, or Free Ad Supported Television (FAST) channels
• Metadata that you export from your content management system or database
• Distribution rights in your target territories
• A playback app integrated with Fire TV (for Fire TV integration)

Technical requirements

• An Amazon Web Services (AWS) account
• AWS CLI installed and configured
• XML validation tools (xmllint is pre-installed on Mac and Linux)
• Understanding of XML format

Recommended:

• Automation scripts (Python, Shell, or similar) for regular catalog submissions
• Scheduled jobs (cron) for automatic catalog updates
• Version control (Git) for tracking catalog changes

Metadata expectations

EMBER has two distinct sets of metadata expectations. Understanding the difference prevents confusion during catalog creation.

• Schema requirements – The schema requires certain metadata. When you submit your catalog, Amazon validates your XSD file. If you omit a required field, your catalog fails ingestion.

  Each program must include a Titles element with at least one Title. All other elements are optional in the schema.

• Recommended fields for matching – Recommended fields enhance the user experience, but aren't required by the schema. If you submit a catalog without one of these fields, it passes schema validation, but might provide a sub-optimal user experience.

  Amazon recommends including ExternalIds (IMDB, TMS, and others) plus at least two of the following: Descriptions, Synopses, ReleaseDates, Credits. Amazon uses multiple metadata points for content matching and de-duplication. Without these fields, your content might not match existing catalog entries, which means it could appear as a duplicate instead of being merged with the same title from other providers.

  Tip: ExternalIds are the single most important field for matching. If you have IMDB, TMS, or other industry-standard identifiers, always include them.

Which catalogs do you need?

EMBER organizes metadata into specialized catalog types. The catalogs you need depend on your service type.

Your service type	Catalogs needed
Streaming VOD	ProgramCatalog + OfferCatalog + PolicyCatalog (optional)
Linear TV / FAST channels	StationCatalog + ProgramCatalog + ScheduleCatalog + OfferCatalog + PolicyCatalog (optional). If your catalog uses ExternalStation IDs (for example, Gracenote), skip ProgramCatalog and ScheduleCatalog.
Live sports	ProgramCatalog + OfferCatalog + PolicyCatalog (recommended)

For a complete description of each catalog type, cross-catalog references, and the full EMBER schema architecture, see EMBER Specification Overview. To browse the entire element directory, see All EMBER Elements.

• Next – Step 1: Set Up Your Account

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Last updated: May 27, 2026