FAST channel metadata requirements are the channel, program and schedule data a platform needs to list and sell a stream: titles, descriptions, genres, ratings, artwork, third-party IDs such as Gracenote TMS IDs, and an EPG with start times. Each platform formats them differently, and in Amagi's June 2026 AIRTIME survey, 86% of respondents said poor metadata is costing them money.
What FAST channel metadata is
A FAST channel (free ad-supported streaming TV) is a scheduled, linear stream that viewers watch free while ads pay the bills. Its metadata is the structured information that describes the channel, every program on it and when each one airs.
Operators usually sort it into three layers:
Descriptive metadata (titles, synopses, genre and cast) helps programmers find what to schedule and helps viewers choose from the guide or on-demand catalog.
Technical metadata (file format, resolution and duration) keeps the schedule accurate during ingest, transcoding and playout.
Rights metadata (licensing terms and geo-restrictions) governs where a title is allowed to air.
Descriptive data drives search and recommendations. Technical data keeps the schedule accurate to the second. Rights data stops a title from airing where it isn't cleared. Ad systems also read genre and rating to place contextual ads and keep brands away from content they want to avoid. If you are still deciding on format and library, start with how to start a FAST channel and come back to metadata once you know what you'll air.
What metadata does a FAST channel need?
A FAST channel needs metadata at three levels: the channel, each program or episode, and each scheduled airing. Most distributors and platforms ask for the same core fields at each level, but the format, field names and limits differ from one to the next.
The table below draws on one distributor's EPG spec and one major platform's ingest spec, both checked in October 2026.
Level
Typical fields
Notes
Channel
Name, logo, description, genre classification
Listed first in one distributor's EPG feed, ahead of programs and schedule
Episodes need their parent series (and season, where used) fully populated
Schedule
Unique ID, start time in ISO 8601, duration in seconds, live-event flag
The ID maps each airing back to its program record
Optional
External IDs from a metadata provider, tags, cast
One major platform lists external IDs as optional but rejects invalid ones
The episode rule catches people out. On one major platform's spec, an episode in the schedule must point to a series record (and season, when applicable) that has every required field, unless the series carries a valid TMS ID. A missing season record can break the listing for the whole show.
At minimum, every asset needs a title, description, duration, genre and rating before it goes on a schedule. Our guide to content requirements for FAST channels covers the video and audio side of the same checklist.
IDs: Gracenote TMS IDs and why platforms match to them
A TMS ID is Gracenote's identifier for a program, series or event. Platforms use these IDs to tie your title to one shared record across services, so the same show does not appear as three different entries in search.
One major platform's live linear spec, checked October 2026, shows how much weight the ID carries:
A scheduled program needs only a title or a valid TMS ID. Anything that isn't a valid ID is rejected.
The platform tries to match every partner title to a Gracenote record. Where it finds a match, the metadata and artwork shown to viewers come from Gracenote, not from the partner.
Gracenote says it holds schedule, program and source metadata for nearly 2,000 FAST channels, plus more than 75,000 linear channels. That reach is why big platforms lean on it for guides and universal search.
For an independent operator, a valid ID is worth the effort. Your title matches more reliably, is less likely to get mislabeled, and is more likely to show up when someone searches by name. Original creator content often has no Gracenote record yet. In that case your own fields are what viewers see, so they have to be complete.
Platform submission rules change often. Check each platform's own partner documentation before you deliver, and note the date you checked it.
Artwork and descriptions that survive every platform
Artwork and descriptions are the fields viewers actually see, and the fields platforms reformat most. A few habits keep them from breaking when a platform reformats them.
Supply a clean channel logo and channel art first. One distributor's EPG feed fills a missing program thumbnail with art derived from the channel, so weak channel art spreads across your whole guide.
Give every program its own thumbnail anyway. Fallback art makes a full day of the guide look identical.
Leave optional fields empty rather than filling them with placeholders like "TBD" or "Description coming soon." A placeholder looks like a broken listing.
Write a short and a long synopsis for each title. Short ones fit tight guide cells, and long ones serve detail pages and search.
Use one genre taxonomy across the library, such as genre, sub-genre, series, season, episode, so similar programs group together.
Publish a standard tag list covering theme, mood and whether something is live, and make everyone tagging content use it.
Match ratings to the content, not to the series average. Ad systems and parental controls read them per episode.
The EPG (electronic program guide) feed ties programs to time slots. Each airing carries a unique ID that points to a program record, along with a start time and a duration. The guide combines the two to show what is on now and next.
One distributor's EPG spec, checked October 2026, shows typical delivery rules. The feed covers seven days of data forward from yesterday, updates once a day at a time the platform chooses, and is offset for time zones by the distributor so the stream and guide always match. Delivering at least a week ahead and refreshing daily is a sensible baseline even where a platform asks for less.
Late changes are the hard part. A rain delay, a pre-emption or a blackout close to air time has to reach every guide quickly, or viewers tune in to the wrong show. Standards work is under way to handle these cases. A MovieLabs committee draft from June 2026 defines EPG data on top of SCTE 224, covering schedule changes, program changes and blackouts among other use cases.
Live events need extra lead time. One major platform asks partners to send event metadata as early as possible and prefers a Gracenote TMS ID for the event. If you run live shows, build that delivery into your production calendar and your full channel launch checklist.
Why metadata costs money: the format tax
Poor metadata costs operators money through lost ad revenue, weaker discovery and platforms deprioritizing their content. The bigger cost, though, is reformatting the same data for every platform.
Amagi's June 2026 AIRTIME Report, published July 1, 2026, includes a pulse survey of 28 senior practitioners. Amagi and FASTMaster ran it, and Amagi describes it as directional, not representative of the industry. Treat it as a vendor survey, not measurement. TVNewsCheck's July 7 coverage summarizes the findings:
Survey finding (June 2026)
Share of respondents
Reformatting metadata for each platform is their single biggest operational drag
86%
Poor metadata is costing them money
86%
Metadata from content owners is incomplete, and the problem is getting worse
71%
Metadata costs too much for its value
39%
The gap between the first and last rows matters. In Amagi's webinar write-up, FASTMaster's Gavin Bridge put it this way: "we're fine to create metadata, we're drowning in delivering the metadata." Amagi calls this the format tax, the ongoing cost of adapting fields and artwork to each platform's own character limits and requirements, because no universal standard exists. It says channel operators and aggregators absorb most of that cost, not content owners or platforms.
Thin metadata hits the ad side directly. Thin genre and rating data limits contextual targeting, and a listing nobody finds earns no impressions. For the broader revenue picture, see FAST channel revenue models, and for market-level figures, our FAST channel statistics hub.
AI-generated metadata: where it helps
AI can already write usable synopses, tags and genre labels, and most practitioners in the same survey trust it to do so. In FASTMaster's write-up of the survey, 57% said AI is reliable enough that human review only needs to be a spot-check. Amagi's release adds that 68% expect AI to handle most metadata generation with minimal oversight within three years, and the same share expect major platforms, not content owners, to set metadata standards in that time.
Bridge argues that discovery is moving toward software built to read metadata automatically, and that content described poorly for those systems risks being overlooked by the tools that do the recommending.
A practical split: let AI draft descriptions and genre or tag suggestions across a large library, then have a person check ratings, rights and anything involving real people. Those are the fields where a mistake creates legal or compliance trouble rather than a weak listing. Better metadata also feeds search and recommendations, which is the starting point for growing retention and discovery.
How Vidiyo handles channel metadata
Vidiyo is our product, a FAST channel platform. A creator can start a channel without an application or a curation desk. In Studio, each video gets a title, description, rating, tags and a thumbnail, and Vidiyo generates captions for every upload. Channel art is available on request.
Videos come in through file upload, a YouTube import or a catalog feed, then go on a weekly schedule, with auto-fill covering gaps. A published channel gets a TV guide listing across the Vidiyo apps, available now on the web, iPhone and iPad, Android, Roku and Apple TV. Vidiyo distributes to its own apps only. It does not place channels on Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, Tubi or any other third-party FAST service, so their metadata specs still apply if you pursue carriage there separately.
Step-by-step instructions for editing video details, importing videos and creating a channel are in Vidiyo Help tutorials. Once the channel is live, use the guide to what to measure after launch to see whether your listings are bringing viewers in.
FAST channel metadata requirements explained · Vidiyo Learn
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