Keep library on external hard rive

I want to add media files to Itunes so that they are availble to watch on apple tv but i want to leave the files on an external hardrive, not co[pied onto my mac. Is this possible?

Either open the iTunes preferences and set it not to copy the content to the iTunes Media folder, or drag the entire iTunes library to the external drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and navigate to that library.
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