Self-Publishing Contracts

Title submission overview

Prime Video Slate helps rights holders offer policy compliant titles for rent/buy (TVOD) through Prime Video. Please note submission of your content doesn’t guarantee that your title will be selected for licensing or published by a given date.

Titles submitted for licensing consideration on Prime Video can be standalone or episodic.

Important: Choose carefully whether to create a standalone or episodic title. You can’t switch types later without starting over.

What is the difference between standalone and episodic?

• Standalone
  A title (standalone) consisting of a single video that isn’t part of a larger collection of a series. For example, a feature film, short film, or documentary are all standalone titles.

• Episodic
  A title (series) consisting of multiple episodes that comprise a season. For example, a TV show (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) or multi-part documentary. A title can have multiple seasons. For episodic titles available for purchase, you choose if an entire collection (season) or individual videos (episodes) is available for purchase.
  
  • Series: The parent title of episodic content. There might be different series for different versions of a show. This is relevant only if it is required to separate the episodic titles into different collections. Example: “Southern Fly Fishing Classic” & “Southern Fly Fishing.” Traditionally, all seasons and episodes of a show have a single parent title (series).
  • Season: A collection of individual titles presented in a sequence with other seasons. For shows that are “non-episodic,” we suggest collecting under a “season,” by broadcast year or production cycle. Example: “Daily Farm Report.”
  • Episode: An individual title that is in a sequence with other episodes.

After you submit content for review, it goes through the “publishing” process. This includes delivering, encoding, reviewing, and making content available to customers.

1. Delivery
   Delivery captures all of metadata and assets.

2. Encoding
   Encoding makes sure that assets meet our technical requirements and turns them into something our customers can play on their devices.

3. Licensing consideration and title review

All titles undergo multiple reviews before a licensing decision is made. Your title will remain in submitted status until it has been selected for licensing in all requested territories and/or offer types. We generally license professionally produced, feature-length movies and TV shows that have been theatrically released, broadcast on a major TV network, or selected by a major film festival. Even if a title has one or more of these attributes, Prime Video may still choose not to license it. Conversely, Prime Video may choose to license a limited number of titles that haven’t been in theaters, broadcast, or selected by a major festival.

4. Publish
   If a title is selected for licensing, it will go through the publishing process. Publishing takes all the pieces that have been reviewed and merges them together to create a title listing in the Prime Video catalog.

5. Post-licensing content review
   

Prime Video is a curated service, and we’re constantly refreshing our content offering and selection for customers. Content isn’t licensed indefinitely and may be removed at any time at the sole discretion of Prime Video. Prime Video conducts regular reviews using customer signals and viewing behavior (like completion rate, unique customer streams, and total hours) to determine which titles are resonating with customers. Content that fails to meet our engagement standards may be subject to removal from the service.

We understand you invest a lot in your content and we always provide you with visibility in your Dashboard if your title isn’t selected for licensing and/or removed from the catalog. Unless otherwise indicated, removed titles (or titles not selected for licensing) may not be resubmitted or appealed. All content submitted through Prime Video Direct is made available/licensed at the sole discretion of Prime Video.

For more information, see Licensing consideration and title review.

Learn more

• Submission requirements
• Location requirements
• Licensing consideration and title review
• Content Policy Guidelines