Swift, SwiftUI, UIKit, AVFoundation, media playback, and Apple TV interfaces.
I build native Apple TV apps remotely for video, media, streaming, education, and product experiences. Day rate: €500 or $600.
tvOS is not a big iPhone screen. People sit far from the display and drive everything with a remote, so layout, focus order, and text size all need rethinking. I design Apple TV interfaces around that distance and around the way people actually move through content on a TV.
Most Apple TV projects live or die on playback. I work with AVPlayer and AVFoundation for HLS streams, add FairPlay Streaming when content needs DRM, and cover offline downloads and Picture in Picture. The goal is fast start, clean seeking, and audio and subtitle tracks that stay reliable on a real TV.
Apple TV navigation runs on the focus engine and the Siri Remote. I set up focus guides, preferred focus, and parallax artwork so movement feels natural and nothing gets stuck. Good focus behavior is what separates an Apple TV app that feels native from one that feels ported.
The Top Shelf is the prime space above your app icon on the Apple TV Home screen. I build the TVTopShelf extension so recent or recommended content shows up there, and wire deep links so selecting an item opens the right screen inside the app.
tvOS apps usually need to handle accounts without a keyboard. I set up Sign in with Apple, device-based pairing flows, and in-app purchase or subscriptions for Apple TV, so people can sign in and pay without fighting the remote.
I prepare and submit tvOS builds to the App Store, including universal purchase shared with an existing iOS app so customers buy once across devices. I also set up TestFlight on Apple TV for review and handle the parts of App Store review that are specific to tvOS.
Working on more than the living room? I also do native iOS development and remote mobile development.
Yes. I build native tvOS apps using Swift and Apple platform APIs.
Apple TV work is billed at the same remote day rate as my other platforms, €500 or $600 per day depending on the contract currency. A small streaming or catalog app is usually a few days of work, and I can give a tighter estimate once I see the product scope and the API behind it.
Often yes. If your iOS app already has a clean API and shared Swift code, a tvOS version can reuse a good part of it. The interface is rebuilt for the remote and the focus engine rather than copied across, since touch screens and TV screens work differently.
Yes. tvOS playback runs on AVPlayer and AVFoundation with HLS, and I add FairPlay Streaming when content needs DRM. I also handle encoding and CDN constraints, plus WebRTC when a project needs low-latency or live video.
Yes. Live channels and video on demand are a core use case for Apple TV. I handle HLS playback, live and catch-up streams, catalog browsing, and the playback edge cases that show up on a real TV rather than a simulator.
Yes. When content is protected, I integrate FairPlay Streaming with your license server and key delivery so playback stays compliant. I also work on the CDN and encoding side when the stream itself needs attention.
Yes. I work as a freelance tvOS developer remotely, on my own or alongside an existing team. You can hand over a defined Apple TV project or bring me in to unblock and ship a stalled one.
Remote tvOS work is billed at €500 or $600 per day.
Send the product context, target platform, repository state, and timing. I will tell you quickly if I can help.
Contact Sylvain