Add metadata to my ZenVideo OTT videos for discovery

You can add standard metadata to your videos (e.g. genre, release date, director, ratings, etc.) so that your customers can easily discover related content they might enjoy. It also allows you to make it easier for viewers to find your content via search or other parameters.

In this article:

• Types of metadata you can add
• Add metadata to a video
• How do my customers see it?

Types of metadata you can add

The information you can add to your video includes:

• Tags - You can specify tags that help describe your content. This should be thought of differently than a Category, as this describes the specific video. You can also use Tags to help create custom search filters for your site.
• Genres - You can specify particular Genres that the content belongs to from a specific list that we provide. This list is not exhaustive by any means! There are thousands of genres to describe your work but by selecting from a shorter list, we can more easily group your content and help Customers find similar works. Note, select as many Genres for your content to as many Categories as you’d like!  
• Cast - You may specify the cast and the parts they portrayed here. Simply input the person’s real name and the role they played! This can help your customers find other content that they appeared in.
• Crew - You may credit the crew and the roles they performed. Simply input the person’s name and the role they performed. This can help your customers find other content that the crew was involved in.
• Release date - You may specify a release date for your content. Additionally, there is a “Country” field where you may specify the location related to that release date. For instance, if your work was released on January 5th in Australia and February 20th in Germany, you can specify each release date. If a Country is provided, we will show that release date to Customers in that region. If a Country is not provided, the release date will indicate a worldwide release.
• Rating - You may specify a Rating for your content. Additionally, there is a “Country” field where you may specify the location related to that particular rating. For instance, if your film was Rated R in the United States but Rated “15” in Europe, you could specify each. If a Country is provided, we will show that rating to Customers in that region. If a Country is not provided, the rating will indicate a worldwide rating.
• Advisory - You can provide an advisory to warn your viewers if your video contains potentially offending content such as language, violence, or nudity. Similar to Rating, there is a “Country” field where you may specify the location related to that particular Advisory.
• License - You may specify if this is Original Content or Licensed Content.
• Media ID - You may specify a Media ID for your content. This is generally an internal identifier.
• Media type - Set this as “Movie”, “Episode”, “Sporting Event” or other to define what kind of media you are providing
• Advanced metadata - If you are using API you can pair a key with either image metadata or custom metadata. 

Add metadata to a video

From the top navigation in your admin:

1. Go to Content > Videos.
2. Select the video you want to add metadata to from the list.
3. Open the Discovery menu on the left side.
   
4. Type in your metadata, and be sure to click the (+) button where appropriate to apply the metadata.
5. When you are satisfied with the metadata you’ve added, click Save in the upper right corner.

You can also update video metadata in bulk.

How do my customers see it?

Once you’ve defined some metadata for your videos, you must select what elements you would like to surface to your Customers. By default, none of your metadata is shown to customers.

To configure this, head over to your Site Settings (from your OTT Admin, go to Settings > Site > General)

Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Details section. Click the (+) button to see a list of metadata fields that can be surfaced to your Customers on every video page.

 Remember, this data will only show up if you’ve filled it out. For instance, if you chose to show “Genres” to your Customers but had not selected any genres for a particular video, there wouldn’t be anything for them to click on.

💡Tip: While adding metadata to your videos is helpful in surfacing new content for your customers to discover, it also helps you manage your library.