I stream live on youtube a lot and since yesterday I experience a weird thing:
I embedded the livestream URL in my site. it was youtube.com/embed/ABCDE
(normal embed link). That link used to show the current livestream and not a specific video. for example:
I'm streaming and you can watch it on youtube.com/embed/ABCDE
.
When i'm finished, the video gets its own url, something like youtube.com/watch?v=FGHIJ
. In the next time I will stream, users can watch the stream on youtube.com/embed/ABCDE
(that was a permanent url that didn't change).
Now, every time I stream, the livestream get its own link at first place, which means I have to update my embed code manually every time I stream.
I researched a bit around Google, SO and YouTube and I found out that a livestream's permanent url is youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID/live
. It's awesome and all, but I can't find a way to embed it.
(I use wordpress and I didn't find any plugin to do it automatically for me).
TL:DR; how to embed the livestream in the page youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID/live
?
The embed URL for a channel's live stream is:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/live_stream?channel=CHANNEL_ID
You can find your CHANNEL_ID at https://www.youtube.com/account_advanced
The issue is two-fold:
- WordPress reformats the YouTube link
- You need a custom embed link to support a live stream embed
As a prerequisite (as of August, 2016), you need to link an AdSense account and then turn on monetization in your YouTube channel. It's a painful change that broke a lot of live streams.
You will need to use the following URL format for the embed:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/live_stream?channel=CHANNEL_ID&autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The &autoplay=1
is not necessary, but I like to include it. One thing to note is that WordPress may reformat the URL once your commit your change. Therefore, you'll need a plugin that allows you to use raw code and not have it override. Using a custom PHP code plugin can help and you would just echo the code like so:
<?php echo '<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/live_stream?channel=CHANNEL_ID&autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>'; ?>
Let me know if that worked for you!
Have you tried plugin called " Youtube Live Stream Auto Embed"
Its seems to be working. Check it once.