atlas - the global video & audio index

It's never been so easy to build advanced video and audio services

1 API

Search for programmes by title
Display schedules and content details
Aggregate links to all services for the same show
Work across web, mobile and TV
Smoothly handle rights restrictions

15+ International sources

long-form and short-form: archive.org, blip.tv, BBC, Channel 4, dailymotion, Five, HBO, Hulu, iTunes, ITV, MSN Video, Press Association, ted.com, TVBLOB, Vimeo, YouTube and podcasts

5+ output formats

RESTful API with XML and JSON
Specialist feeds for Google, BBC iPlayer, UK Radioplayer and Xbox
RDF for linked data

Atlas at work

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Examples

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/3.0/search.json?q=doctor who&limit=2

Search for the title of some content

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/3.0/content.json?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zf9j6

Get information about a certain piece of content

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/3.0/schedule.json?from=now&to=now.plus.24h&channel_id=cbbh&publisher=bbc.co.uk

Search for everything from now to tomorrow on BBC One

Reference

Overview

Atlas is a metadata aggregator built for multiple data sets. It ingests data from many different sources, indexes it, matches equivalent items and then makes the data available through a simple RESTful API as well as several standard feed formats.

Users of the API can control how data from different sources is merged to create a single output, or choose to view equivalent items as separate linked resources. Underlying everything is a common data model that all sources are mapped to.

Data Model

The Atlas data model has a number of key resource types. They are containers and items (collectively know as content), content groups, topics, products and channels.

Containers

Containers represent a collection of items within a programme hierarchy. They can be either brands or series. This is used to model programme hierarchies like Doctor Who (brand), Series 1 (series). Containers are returned with a list of the items they contain, but note that not all items are in a container (e.g. one-off items and films).

Items

Items represent individual pieces of content. They can be episodes, one-off items, films or clips. Items that are episodes are also in a container.

In addition to descriptive metadata such as titles, descriptions, genres and people, items also list the different places in which the content is available to watch or listen to. Broadcasts describe when the item is available on air, while locations list the places the content is available to watch on demand.

Content groups

Content groups are arbitrary collections of items outside the normal programme hierarchy. They can be used to group together any content, including containers and items. Content groups are used to model broadcast seasons, related brands and flexible playlists of items.

Topics

Topics are the things that a programme is about. Topics can be music artists, people, places, events, products, artistic works or just general subjects. They have a many to many relationship with content, so a piece of content can have many topics and you can ask for the content for a topic.

Products

Products represent physical products, such a CDs and DVDs. They have a many to many relationship with content, so a single piece of content can have many related products and a product can be related to many pieces of content. Products also have availability information that links to the places where the product can be purchased.

Channels

Broadcast channels are also modelled as resources in Atlas. When asking for a schedule, you will have to provide the correct channel id, which is available from the API.

Channel groups

Channel groups are sets of channels that represent broadcast platforms and regions, such as Freeview and BBC Scotland. By combining channel groups you can get a list of all of the channels available on a certain platform in a particular region.

Sources

Atlas works with data from the following sources:

International Long-form

Source	Access	Type
Hulu	Public	Free on-demand shows
iTunes	Public	Pay on-demand shows
TV Blob	Public	EPG

UK Long-form

Source	Access	Type
BBC	Public	Free on-demand shows, EPG, Clips
Channel 4	Restricted	Free on-demand shows, EPG, Clips
Five	Restricted	Free on-demand shows
ITV	Restricted	Free on-demand shows
MSN Video	Public	free on-demand shows
Press Association	Restricted	EPG

International Short-form

Source	Access	Type
archive.org	Public	Clips
blip.tv	Public	Clips
Daily Motion	Public	Clips
Podcasts	Public	Clips
TED.com	Public	Clips
Vimeo	Public	Clips
YouTube	Public	Clips

Please contact MetaBroadcast if you are interested in using restricted sources.

Feeds

In addition to the RESTful API, Atlas also provides data in a variety of feed formats

Format	Base Type	Description
BBC Interlinking	MRSS	Data to feed broadcast data into BBC iPlayer
Google Video Sitemaps	MRSS	Data to feed Google Video Search
UK Radioplayer	DAB-EPG	Data to feed UK Radio Player Search
Xbox LIVE	Lakeview	Data to feed Xbox LIVE TV Search

Contact MetaBroadcast for help producing data in these formats

About

Atlas is open source

Atlas is an open-source project (it's all licensed under Apache 2.0) and we'd love for you to get involved. Below are all the resources that will help you join in. Participation comes in many forms:

Hack something up using the Atlas API, blog about it and get us to link to it
Have a chat with us about the features and formats that youÕd find useful
Tell us when something doesnÕt quite work the way youÕd expect it to here

Develop an adapter for a new source of content, current sources are here
Help improve the core of the code
Write client libraries for other languages
Provide a metadata endpoint for us to ingest

Atlas is used by

Get Involved

Client Libraries

API Explorer

Schedule
Channels
Content
Content Groups
Topics
Products
Search

Complete control

Schedule

GET /schedule.json

Returns a schedule for the specified channel and period.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
channel_id	Please Select cbbh (BBC One) cbbG (BBC Two) cbbP (BBC Three) cbbQ (BBC Four) cbbV (BBC HD) cbbW (CBBC) cbcQ (BBC Radio 1) cbcS (BBC Radio 2)	string	The id of the required channel. Available from /channels.json
from		multiple	The beginning of the schedule period. Can be an ISO date, number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970 or a relative duration, e.g. 'now'.
to		multiple	The end of the schedule period. Can be an ISO date, number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970 or a relative duration., e.g. 'now.plus.6h'.
publisher		string	The publisher of the schedule
annotations		list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid Annotations: description, extended_description, brand_summary, series_summary, people, topics, segment_events, related_links, key_phrases, broadcasts, locations, first_broadcast, next_broadcast, available_locations, plus channel.

Request

Channels and Channel groups

GET /channels.json

Returns a paginated list of all channels.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
broadcaster		string	Optionally filter by the broadcaster that owns the channel
media_type		string	Optionally filter by the type of channel (audio or video)
available_from		string	Optionally filter by a publisher that publishes data for the channel
platforms	Please Select Freeview Freesat Sky Virgin Media	list	Optionally filter by channel groups that represent broadcast platforms
regions	Please Select BBC Cambridgeshire BBC Channel Islands BBC East BBC East Midlands BBC London BBC NE & Cumbria BBC North West BBC Northern Ireland BBC Oxfordshire BBC Scotland BBC South BBC South East BBC South West BBC Wales BBC West BBC West Midlands BBC Yorks & Lincs BBC Yorkshire	list	Optionally filter by channel groups that represent broadcast regions
order_by		string	Optionally order the list of channels
limit		integer	The number of channels to return per page
offset		integer	The offset from the start of the list.
annotations		list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid annotations: channel_groups

Request

GET /channels/:id.json

Returns the data for a particular channel.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
id		string	The id of the channel

Valid annotations: channel_groups

Request

GET /channel_groups.json

Returns a paginated list of all channel groups.

Parameter	Type	Description
limit	integer	The number of channel groups to return per page
offset	integer	The offset from the start of the list.
annotations	list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid annotations: channels

Request

GET /channel_groups/:id.json

Returns the data for a particular channel group.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
id		string	The id of the channel group
annotations		list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid annotations: channels

Request

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
uri		string	The uri of a specific piece of content
annotations		list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output.

Content Groups

GET /content_groups.json

Returns a paginated list of all content groups.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
limit		integer	The number of content groups to return per page
offset		integer	The offset from the start of the list.

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /content_groups/:id.json

Returns the data for a particular content group.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
id		string	The id of the content group

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /content_groups/:id/content.json

Returns a paginated list of the content for a content group.

Parameter	Type	Description
id	string	The id of the content group
limit	integer	The number of pieces of content to return per page
offset	integer	The offset from the start of the list
annotations	list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid annotations: all content annotations, plus filtering_resource

Request

Topics

GET /topics.json

Returns a paginated list of all topics.

Parameter	Type	Description
namespace	string	Optionally filter by the specified topic namespace
value	string	Optionally filter by the specified topic value.
limit	integer	The number of topics to return per page.
offset	integer	The offset from the start of the list.

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /topics/:id.json

Returns the data for a particular topic.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
id		string	The id of the topic

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /topics/:id/content.json

Returns a paginated list of the content for a topic.

Parameter	Type	Description
id	string	The id of the topic
limit	integer	The number of pieces of content to return per page
offset	integer	The offset from the start of the list
annotations	list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output

Valid annotations: all content annotations, plus filtering_resource

Request

Products

All products data is currently restricted, please enter your API key above.

GET /products.json

Returns a paginated list of all products.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
limit		integer	The number of products to return per page
offset		integer	The offset from the start of the list.

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /products/:id.json

Returns a paginated list of the content related to a product.

Parameter	Value	Type	Description
id		string	The id of the product

Valid annotations: none

Request

GET /products/:id/content.json

Returns a paginated list of the content related to a product.

Parameter	Type	Description
id	string	The id of the product
limit	integer	The number of products to return per page
offset	integer	The offset from the start of the list.
annotations	list	List of annotations that describe the data to be output.

Valid annotations: all content annotations, plus filtering_resource

Parameter	Type	Description
q	string	The title of a container or item
limit	integer	The number of items to return (max 50).
publisher	string	The publisher of the content.

It's never been so easy to build advanced video and audio services

1 API

15+ International sources

5+ output formats

Atlas at work

Examples

Search for the title of some content

Get information about a certain piece of content

Search for everything from now to tomorrow on BBC One

Reference

Overview

Data Model

Containers

Items

Content groups

Topics

Products

Channels

Channel groups

Sources

International Long-form

UK Long-form

International Short-form

Feeds

About

Atlas is open source

Atlas is used by

Get Involved

Client Libraries

Schedule

GET /schedule.json

Request

Response

Channels and Channel groups

GET /channels.json

Request

Response

GET /channels/:id.json

Request

Response

GET /channel_groups.json

Request

Response

GET /channel_groups/:id.json

Request

Response

Content

GET /content.json

Request

Response

Content Groups

GET /content_groups.json

Request

Response

GET /content_groups/:id.json

Request

Response

GET /content_groups/:id/content.json

Request

Response

Topics

GET /topics.json

Request

Response

GET /topics/:id.json

Request

Response

GET /topics/:id/content.json

Request

Response

Products

GET /products.json

Request

Response

GET /products/:id.json

Request

Response

GET /products/:id/content.json

Request

Response