There are internet providers that are also TV providers and the user is able (at least in France) to see at least some of the TV stations (he/she is paying for) in VLC on a computer connected to an Internet connection provided by the aforementioned TV & internet provider. The TV stations are accessed as a playlist or as a VLC addon - at least for some providers: like this. This VLC addon was not updated for VLC 3.x and (now I notice) is even absent at that address - while it can still be installed from within VLC, even from VLC 3.x, only it shows no stations in that version.
When it works it looks like this:
The list of channels can still be accessed and played as a playlist (like this). That VLC addon (lua file) that works in 2.x is this.
I was wondering whether those TV stations can be played by other video players beside VLC.
That playlist cannot be played by mpv, smplayer or other video players that I have tried until recently, and I was convinced that only VLC can: but, testing in Kubuntu 18.04 I have seen that Kaffeine can play it too.
What does it take for a video player to be able to play those TV stations? Is it a codec? Can they be played by other video players? Is it limited to VLC and Kaffeine? (I think Kaffeine is based on Xine, but Xine-ui cannot play those TV stations either.)