What’s a provider short name?

A provider short name is uniquely associated with each provider within the iTunes Store. Transporter uses the provider short name (together with the “–s” parameter) to link delivery of an episode with a specific provider.

The provider short name must be included in the metadata file and it must be capitalized correctly. If you don’t know your provider short name, let us know.

What is a Vendor ID?

A Vendor ID is a permanent, provider-generated value to uniquely identify an episode delivered to iTunes. This ID is used for tracking and reporting. Every episode in every season must have a unique Vendor ID. You cannot change, reuse, or duplicate Vendor IDs.

If you use an internal naming scheme to identify individual episodes, use it for the Vendor ID. If you do not have an internal naming scheme, use:

NETWORK_SERIES_EPISODEID

For example, the vendor ID for ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” episode 409 would be:

ABC_GREYSANATOMY_409

Note that the Vendor ID can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscore marks. It cannot contain spaces, dashes, ampersands, other punctuation, or symbols. The Vendor ID is case-sensitive and must not start with an underscore.

What is a Container ID?

The Container ID is a permanent, provider-generated value to uniquely identify a TV season on iTunes. This ID is used for tracking and reporting. Every season must have a unique Container ID. You cannot change, reuse, or duplicate Container IDs. Additionally, every episode must be delivered with the correct Container ID to attach it to the correct season.

If you use an internal naming scheme to identify individual seasons, use it for the Container ID. If you do not have an internal naming scheme, use:

NETWORK_SERIES_SEASON_SEASON#

For example, the Container ID for Season 4 of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” would be:

ABC_GREYSANATOMY_SEASON_004

Note that the Container ID can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscore marks. It cannot contain spaces, dashes, ampersands, other punctuation, or symbols. The Container ID is case-sensitive and must not start with an underscore.

What is the difference between a Vendor ID and Container ID?

The Vendor ID identifies an episode in a season. A Container ID identifies a specific season, only. Both are used for reporting sales on a specific season or episode.

Note that both Vendor IDs and Container IDs must be globally unique and cannot be reused. For example, if a Vendor ID is already being used on one season, you cannot use that same Vendor ID on a different season.