You can keep part of your video library for the people you choose, and leave the rest open to everyone. Most channels gate a portion of what they have rather than all of it: a members section, a course, a conference archive, a service that only the congregation should see.
This works whether or not money is involved. Plenty of gated content is not paid, and nothing here requires a payment to exist.
Members-only is in beta. The dashboard side is finished and the Fire TV app enforces it today. Roku and Apple TV enforce it from the new SDK apps we are rolling out now. See Which apps this works on below before you rely on it.
How it works, in one paragraph
You mark a playlist as Members only in your dashboard. On the television that row appears with a padlock. When a viewer opens it, the TV shows a short code. They go to a page on their phone, enter that code together with the access code you gave them, and the television unlocks by itself a few seconds later. Nobody types an email address or a password with a remote.
Step 1: choose what is members only
Go to Playlists & Order in your dashboard. Each playlist has a Members only switch. Turn it on for the rows you want to keep back.
Everything you leave off stays open to everyone. The switch applies to your Apple TV, Roku and Fire TV apps together, whatever your video source is. Whether a given television acts on it depends on which app is installed, which is the beta part.
After you change it, your app content is re-imported in the background. It takes a moment, and you do not have to wait on the page.
Step 2: create an access code
Go to Members in your dashboard and create a code. You decide who gets it and how it reaches them: your own checkout can email it, you can read it out on air, you can print it on a membership card, you can hand it to a class.
Two optional settings on each code:
Expiry. The code and everything it opened stop working after the date you set. This is the shape of a season pass, a rental, or a conference that ends.
Device limit. How many televisions one code may open. A device that already holds the code does not count again, so someone re-linking after a factory reset is not locked out by their own old TV.
One code opens everything you marked as members only. You do not need a separate code per playlist.
Step 3: the viewer unlocks their television
On the TV, the locked row shows a padlock and a short code, six characters long. The alphabet has no O, 0, I, 1 or L in it, so a code read across a room does not turn into a different code when it is typed.
The viewer opens the activation page on their phone, enters the code from the screen along with the access code you gave them, and the television picks it up on its own within a few seconds. There is no login screen on the TV, which is deliberate: typing an email and password with a remote is the fastest way to lose a viewer.
The code on screen is valid for fifteen minutes. If the viewer takes longer, the television shows a fresh one and they use that instead.
Revoking access
Revoke a code from the Members page. It takes effect on every television using it at the next check, without anyone touching the hardware.
A revoked or expired code stays visible in your list so you can see what you handed out. It opens nothing. If you have content locked and no usable code, your dashboard shows a warning stripe, because a lapsed code sitting in the list looks like a working one.
Three ways someone gets in
Access codes are the middle one, and the one most people use.
Path | What it needs from you |
We let someone in | Nothing. Ask support and we can attach a television directly. This is the support path and it works even when everything else has gone wrong. |
You hand out a code | Nothing technical. Create it, give it out, revoke it when you want. |
Your own website grants access | An engineer on your side. Your viewer confirms while signed in to your site, your system tells us that television is entitled, and no code is typed at all. See Grant TV access from your own website. |
What Tappla stores
A device, a hashed token, and a tag saying the device is entitled. That is the whole record a linked television leaves behind: no name, no email address, no payment details, because none of that is needed to open a television. The token is stored only as a hash, so our own database cannot hand anyone a working credential.
Your memberships and your customer list stay in whatever system you already run them in. Tappla does not process payments, and the billing behind a members area runs on your side.
Which apps this works on
Locking is enforced by the app on the television, not by the dashboard, so what matters is which app your viewers have installed. This is the part that is still in beta.
Platform | Where it stands |
Fire TV | Enforces it, in the current app. Also where search and continue watching arrived. |
Roku | Arrives with the new SDK app, which we are rolling out now. |
Apple TV | Arrives with the new SDK app, which we are rolling out now. |
Until your app is rebuilt on the new SDK, a locked row still shows and still plays. The padlock and the gate come from the app, so an older build simply does not know about them. That matters most if you are on all three platforms: lock a row today and Fire TV holds it while the others do not, which for members-only content is worse than waiting.
So while this is in beta, the safe order is: ask us where your apps stand, get them rebuilt, then lock. Write to [email protected] and we will tell you exactly which of your apps enforce it and rebuild the ones that do not.
Common questions
Does this only work for paid content?
No. The feature is about who gets in, not about whether anyone paid. A congregation, a team, a school and a members club all use it the same way.
Can I have different tiers?
The dashboard produces one tier: locked content plays for anyone who has been let in. Multiple tiers exist in the system and are available through the API, so if you need them, talk to us.
Does a viewer have to do this on every television?
Yes, once per television. Each device is unlocked separately, which is also what makes the device limit meaningful.
What happens when a code expires while someone is watching?
The television re-checks on its next launch and on a regular poll, so access ends at the next check rather than mid-playback.
What does beta mean here, concretely?
The dashboard, the codes and the activation flow are finished and in use. What is still moving is how many of your apps act on the lock, and that is a rebuild rather than a rewrite. Nothing you set up now has to be redone later.
Related
Grant TV access from your own website (partner API) — if your own site already authenticates viewers
How to write your own video content feed — if you host your own feed, you can set access on items yourself