Get Started with Live Events

Fire TV events are standalone events that either take place as you watch them (Live Events) or are rebroadcast later. Sports events and live concerts are good examples of possible Live Events.

For more on Linear TV, Video on Demand, and Live Events, see Important Definitions.

Prerequisites

• Access to the source code of your app for Fire TV.
• A Fire TV device that supports this integration. Check with your Amazon contact for a list of device types currently supported.

Integration Overview

Live Events require two integrations:

1. Integrate with the Vega EPG Provider for user event entitlements and metadata, so users can browse and discover your content.
   1. If your app does not provide Linear TV, exclude the ingestChannelLineup and ingestProgramLineup steps from your EpgSyncTask, and ignore channel and program details.
2. Leverage Content Launcher to launch live event playback.
   1. In step 3 of the Content Launcher Integration Guide, The MediaId is passed as part of the contentSearch argument when calling the handleLaunchContent() API. See the following sample code.

      Copy code Copied to clipboard.

      const contentLauncherHandler: IContentLauncherHandler = {
         async handleLaunchContent(
            contentSearch: IContentSearch,
            _autoPlay: boolean,
            _optionalFields: ILaunchContentOptionalFields,
         ): Promise<ILauncherResponse> {
            // Other content launcher logic
      
            const searchParameters = contentSearch.getParameterList();
            if (searchParameters.length > 0) {            
               for (let j = 0; j < searchParameters.length; j++) {
                  const externalIdList = searchParameters[j].getExternalIdList();
                  for (let i = 0; i < externalIdList.length; i++) {
                     const catalogName = externalIdList[i].getName();
                     const contentId = externalIdList[i].getValue();  
                              
                     // "catalogName" is the MediaId.catalogName you provide using Kepler EPG Provider.
                     // "contentId" is the MediaId.contentId you provide using Kepler EPG Provider.
                     // Start Live Event Playback 
                  }
               }
            }
                  
            // Finalization logic
         },
      };
      

Integration details

Content supported

Here is the video content we support:

1. Scheduled Live and Future Events - Like a pay-per-view event, or the Olympic Games.
2. Catch-up and Rebroadcasts (VOD) - Available to watch whenever you want.
3. Highlights, Condensed Games, Interviews (Short form VOD) - Similar to #2, but a shorter venue, such as game highlights.
4. Instantaneous Live Events - Live feeds, such as a Twitch feed.

Content support: Scheduled events

For events with a known schedule (such as a sporting event), use the SCHEDULED_EVENT type. Keep the following guidance in mind:

1. Fire TV displays events scheduled to air within 7 days and automatically removes them from the UI after their end time. Consequently, you can push events taking place after these 7 days without worrying that events are displayed too early or won't be removed on time.
2. Current airing events receive a LIVE badge on the tile to inform the user of the airing status. The LIVE badge is hidden when it's not airing.
3. A red progress bar appears at the bottom of the event tile to inform the user of the event's progress.

Content support: Rebroadcasts

For rebroadcasts of live content (such as reairings of a previous sporting event), use the REBROADCAST type. If a user exits and reenters through the Fire TV UI, a best practice is to begin playback at the user's last watched point.

Content support: Clips

For short clips of content (such as sporting event highlights), use the CLIP type.

Content Support: Instantaneous events

For instant events (such as live video blog), use the INSTANTANEOUS_EVENT type. Instantaneous events receive a LIVE badge on the tile to inform the user of the airing status.

Event Entitlements and ordering

Live Events are provided using the LiveEventProvider interface in the background during your EPG sync task or while your app is active. Only provide entitled content to the user. The last committed set of data is referenced as the authority for all content displayed to users. Changes to the Live Events provided are reflected in the UI within 5 minutes.

The sort order of the events for your app are based on the SortRank provided, with fallback to alphabetically by their title. Place your most important content to the front, emphasizing currently airing programs at the front of the row for highest visibility.

Content insertion

• Insert a minimum of 5 tiles to completely fill the carousel. Fire TV hides your row if there are fewer than 5 Live Events available. Consider adding rebroadcasts or short form clips to maintain the minimum at all times.
• Supply a displayable event title for the LiveEvent.title field. Fire TV displays up to 25 alphanumeric characters, but doesn't display the full live event title if the length exceeds this limit. This max limit is applicable for both half-width and full-width character sets. Examples:
  • The Walking Dead Universe (Max length-Pass).
  • Ed's Purple Plane (Max length-pass).
  • How Sally Fell off her Horse and Learned to Play Piano on a Saturday (Max length-fail, since it's over 25 characters long).
  • エドのパープルプレイン (Max length-Pass).
• Provide all required metadata for Live Events. Refer to Metadata Attributes for details.
• Provide future-scheduled airing events ahead of time to minimize the frequency of syncs. Fire TV caps at a maximum of 15 tiles per event row, and removes ended events from the carousel within 5 minutes after the end time. Your app should remove expired live event content from the provided list in the next periodic sync.

Various attributes are used for badging. Refer to the Attribute section of the Data Type Reference page.

Metadata attributes

The following table lists possible metadata and its usage.

Metadata Field	Description	Required for Certification (Y/N)
LiveEvent.identifier	Unique identifier of the live event.	Y
LiveEvent.eventType	The type of the live event, see Content Supported for details.	Y
LiveEvent.playbackReference	Contains metadata needed to start playback of the live event.	Y
LiveEvent.startTime LiveEvent.endTime	Time it airs (Example: 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM). Found directly under the events title.	Y *Only for Scheduled Events
LiveEvent.title	Title of event, displayed on content tile and mini-details.	Y
LiveEvent.description	Event description, displayed in mini-details.	Y
LiveEvent.ratings	List of ratings indicating the level of parental guidance recommended for the live event. Any rating system can be used in the country or region where the live event broadcasts.	N
LiveEvent.genres	List of genres that apply to the live event.	N
LiveEvent.logoUrl	URL for the app logo.	N
LiveEvent.posterArtUrl	16:9 image used in both the content tile and background image.	Y
LiveEvent.attributes	Various Attributes are used for badging. Refer to the Attribute section of the Data Type Reference page.	N
LiveEvent.sortRank	Sets the order of Live Events in the row with lower values displayed first.	N

Related topics

• Vega Live TV API Overview
• Vega Live TV Issues

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Last updated: Jan 22, 2026