NextGen Live Timeshift

Overview

The Timeshift feature in Brightcove allows viewers to go to a specific time period which offers a DVR like experience that brings flexibility and control to a Live channel.

NextGen Live supports timeshift (catch-up). It does not require enabling any features or making any account-level changes.

General information

Base URL

The base URL for the NextGen Live API is:

https://api.live.brightcove.com

Once you have your Token, you can get the playback token by making a POST request to;

POST v2/accounts/{account_id}/playback/{job_id}/token

You must pass the following headers with this call:

Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Sample Payload

  {
  "dvr": false,
  "low_latency": false,
  "manifest_format": "hls",
  "playlist_name": "",
  "start_time": "2025-08-18T16:49:29+05:30",
  "end_time": "2025-08-18T16:49:39+05:30",
  "byocdn_id": "",
  "ssai": false,
  "ad_config_id":"",
  "cenc": false
}  

The response will look like this (pretty-printed here for readability):

{
    "access_token": "ANB7xKhiUZmwltVd3f1odcHHM9VAwg02kwmLwtZwHv3SxGCOWLUf5W4G7X22PRjmR9StvFUqzpVZ1suOfyfOigdi-rnohxyEaSSuZceeLw_9OBW7fXldOG05HEgkeK3N-DBZZZyilodmjA1JWZHbgI3IU000000000000-z8AL-blKTSMtNI3_fz3oNBisfrHGUv5tXHoQT4B7FYcvdrap16gTOO7_wNt1zmgLJiUHvyxZgsgBchm_AhohVL-AYgcfCbCR0v7d2hgI4ag35pnZNeujDiBLfnCFcVMlqQGq8UEVZrmU9a8000000000qmSrkxLPYZ800-vIWX-lw",
    "token_type": "Bearer",
    "expires_in": 300
}

After generating the Playback token as above, we can get the Timeshift playback URL using the below GET API call,

https://edge.api.brightcove.com/playback/v1/accounts/$account_id/videos/$job_id?livePlaybackToken=$token

Edit the respective Account ID, Job ID, and the playback token which is generated from the previous call.

You must pass the following headers with this call:

Authorization: BCOV-Policy {policy_key}

To get the Policy Key, refer to the URL below.

Response Payload

  {
    "description": "Testing ",
    "tags": [],
    "cue_points": [],
    "custom_fields": {},
    "account_id": "x",
    "sources": [
        {
            "codecs": "mp4a,avc1",
            "ext_x_version": "6",
            "src": "playback URL will be here",
            "type": "application/x-mpegURL"
        }
    ],
    "name": "Timeshift Test",
    "reference_id": null,
    "long_description": null,
    "duration": -1,
    "economics": "AD_SUPPORTED",
    "text_tracks": [],
    "published_at": "2025-09-09T11:25:57.505Z",
    "created_at": "2025-09-09T11:25:57.505Z",
    "updated_at": "2025-09-09T11:25:57.828Z",
    "offline_enabled": false,
    "link": null,
    "id": "x",
    "ad_keys": null
}