Implementation of HTTP Live Streaming in iOS

A short and to the point implementation. The included URL points to a valid stream (as of 12/15/2015), but you can just replace with your own URL to a .m3u8 file.

Objective-C:

#import <MediaPlayer/MediaPlayer.h>
@interface ViewController ()
@property (strong, nonatomic) MPMoviePlayerController *streamPlayer;
@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    NSURL *streamURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://qthttp.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1010qwoeiuryfg/sl.m3u8"];

    _streamPlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:streamURL];

    // depending on your implementation your view may not have it's bounds set here
    // in that case consider calling the following 4 msgs later
    [self.streamPlayer.view setFrame: self.view.bounds];

    self.streamPlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded;

    [self.view addSubview: self.streamPlayer.view];

    [self.streamPlayer play];
}

- (void)dealloc
{
     // if non-ARC
    // [_streamPlayer release];
    // [super dealloc];
}

@end

Swift:

import UIKit
import MediaPlayer

class ViewController: UIViewController {

     var streamPlayer : MPMoviePlayerController =  MPMoviePlayerController(contentURL: NSURL(string:"http://qthttp.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1010qwoeiuryfg/sl.m3u8"))

     //Let's play
     override func viewDidLoad() {
         super.viewDidLoad()
         // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
         streamPlayer.view.frame = self.view.bounds
         self.view.addSubview(streamPlayer.view)

         streamPlayer.fullscreen = true
         // Play the movie!
         streamPlayer.play()
    }

}

Updated answer for both the languages. Also MPMoviePlayerController is deprecated in iOS 9, but you can use AVPlayerViewController instead. Happy Coding.!!!

If you point a UIWebView at that target m3u8 URL, it will just work.

Below is my Swift 4 solution with AVPlayer

[since MPMoviePlayerController is deprecated in iOS 9]

import UIKit
import AVKit
...

class VideoPlayerViewController: UIViewController {

    var player: AVPlayer?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        guard let url = URL(string: "http://stream-url.com/file.m3u8") else {
            print("Umm, looks like an invalid URL!")
            return
        }

        player = AVPlayer(url: url)
        let controller = AVPlayerViewController()
        controller.delegate = self
        controller.player = player

        // present the player controller & play
        present(controller, animated: true) {
            self.player?.play()
        }
    }

}