How do I programmatically add a UIImage to a UIImageView then add that UIImageView to another UIView?

In your ViewController , add the imageview directly...

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
   playerView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"playerIdle.png"]];
   [self.view addSubView: playerView];
}

Try this:

UIImageView *imgView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"name.png"]];
[self.view addSubview:imgView];

Pls try the below code :

- (id)init 
{
     if (self = [super init]) {
         playerIdle = [UIImage imageNamed:@"playerIdle.png"];
         playerView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:playerIdle];
         [self.view addSubview:playerView];
     }
return self; 
} 

Hope this might help you.....