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Send a showcase to a custom TV channel (Roku, Amazon Fire TV)

Melissa Borup
  • Updated
This feature requires a Pro, Business, Premium, Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise membership.

ZenVideo members can create customized Roku Channels and Fire TV apps where they can send their showcases. 

Note: This feature is only available with Roku and Amazon Fire TV at this time. It is not currently possible to send showcases to Apple TV, Samsung, mobile apps, or any other TV apps. It's also not possible to distribute live events via a TV app.

In this article:

Get a feed URL

The feed URL is a file generated from ZenVideo that contains information about your showcase and the videos inside it.

You’ll need to enter a feed URL during the setup process for your TV apps or channels.

To obtain a feed URL, open showcase settings and then select TV apps. Next, choose the Roku or Amazon Fire TV tab.

For Roku, you'll need to enter a provider name, the language of your channel, and genres before copying your feed URL. 

For Amazon Fire TV, select the link button to copy the URL to your clipboard.

Roku channel set up

As of January 2024, you will need to convert your Direct Publisher channel to Scenegraph per Roku's announcement here: Roku to sunset Direct Publisher early 2024.

Access your channel

Once your channel is published, it will appear in the Roku Channel or Fire TV store. You and your viewers will be able to download the channel and access the videos in your Showcase from a Roku or Fire TV device. You can find instructions for installing channels below:

Please note that the feed URL for Fire TV apps does not support custom sorting—meaning your videos may appear in a different order than how they appear in your showcase on vimeo.com. The default order on Fire TV will display the most recent videos first.

Privacy

Please note that only public videos and showcases can be shown on TV apps. For example, you'll need to set both your videos and showcase to "Anyone" can view. 

Sell videos in TV apps

We do not support integrating ZenVideo On Demand videos into Showcase feeds for TV apps in order to sell your content.

You may be able to monetize with ads through the developer platforms provided by Roku, however, this process is not controlled nor managed by ZenVideo. You can find more information on the ad monetization programs provided by each developer platform below:

If you’re interested in selling videos through a custom TV app, please check out ZenVideo OTT (https://vimeo.com/ott/home). ZenVideo OTT is a service that allows users to launch a subscription using custom branded apps and webpages. For more information on selling videos through ZenVideo OTT, you can reach out to the team by selecting "contact" at https://help.vhx.tv.

Updates to your showcase

The content of your showcase will be automatically updated on your Roku channel once it’s published. This means that even if you need to update your videos on ZenVideo (for example, if you need to add/remove a video in your Showcase, or change a title or video thumbnail), you won’t need to make any manual changes on Roku's end—just keep in mind that it make take some time for your changes to be reflected.

Any updates or customization to the apps themselves (general app images, layouts, app descriptions, categories, etc) must be done through Roku’s interface. ZenVideo only supplies the video content of your showcase.

Troubleshooting

ZenVideo’s support team is always happy to help with any content-related issues that arise (for example, videos not appearing in your TV app). However, if you’re specifically having trouble with your Roku developer account we suggest contacting Roku Support (https://support.roku.com) they will be best positioned to assist you with any issues. You can find support for Fire TV here.

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