# ESPN Video Downloader (`codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader`) Actor

Download and extract rich video metadata from Espn Video, supporting resolutions up to 4K. Scrapes titles, duration, channel information, view counts, likes, user comments, and subtitles. Built with complete proxy rotation and anti-bot bypass support.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader.md
- **Developed by:** [Coding Frontned](https://apify.com/codingfrontend) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 0 monthly users, 69.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.99 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## ESPN Public Video URL Extractor

This Actor finds complete, unrestricted video records exposed by ESPN's public scoreboard and game-summary JSON. It returns the preferred public HTTPS MP4 or HLS URL plus useful game and video metadata. It does not copy media bytes, sign in, use private APIs, follow authentication redirects, or work around CAPTCHA, paywall, geographic, device, rate, WAF, or other access restrictions.

### Input

- `league`: one of the supported ESPN league slugs, such as `mlb`, `nba`, or `nfl`.
- `dates`: optional `YYYYMMDD` date or chronological range of at most 31 days.
- `eventIds`: optional unique ESPN event IDs. This skips the scoreboard lookup.
- `maxGames`: 1–50 games to inspect.
- `maxVideosPerGame`: 1–20 source videos per game.
- `maxItems`: exact global output cap from 1–100.
- `proxyConfiguration`: standard Apify proxy configuration. The default is ordinary US residential access because ESPN can reject datacenter clients.

Input is strict: unknown fields, coercive numeric strings, invalid calendar dates, duplicate/invalid event IDs, contradictory proxy settings, and excessive limits fail before any public request.

### Output

The dataset contains video records only. Every record has a stable video key, headline, preferred media URL and format, all detected media variants, complete game identity/date, league, public source endpoint/status, extraction method, proxy state, and scrape time. Optional descriptions, duration, page/thumbnail URLs, status, season, score, and team fields are omitted when ESPN does not expose them; they are never filled with null placeholders.

The Actor deduplicates globally by public video identity, preserves source order, skips restricted videos, and writes at most exactly `maxItems`. If the source is blocked, malformed, empty, or exposes no unrestricted public media URL, the dataset remains empty, a structured `diagnostics` record is stored in the default key-value store, and the run fails.

### Request safety and resource bounds

Requests are sequential, paced by at least 350 ms, limited to 20 seconds and 3 MB each, and use at most two attempts. The second attempt is only for a transient network, timeout, or HTTP 5xx failure. Redirects and all access-control signals stop immediately without retries or alternate/private access paths. Output URLs must be public HTTPS targets; credentialed, local, private-network, and non-HTTPS URLs are discarded.

This Actor returns public URLs rather than downloading ESPN media files. Users are responsible for ESPN's terms, media rights, and applicable law when consuming a returned URL.

### Local QA

```sh
npm ci
npm test
npm run check
npm audit --omit=dev
apify run --purge --input-file .actor/input.json
```

The unit suite uses a bounded synthetic fixture shaped like the public response structure. The supplied local live input disables proxy use so a host-level denial is recorded rather than hidden.

# Actor input Schema

## `league` (type: `string`):

ESPN league to inspect.

## `dates` (type: `string`):

Optional real calendar date in YYYYMMDD, or a chronological range of at most 31 days.

## `eventIds` (type: `array`):

Optional stable ESPN event IDs. When present, the scoreboard lookup is skipped.

## `maxGames` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of scoreboard games to inspect.

## `maxVideosPerGame` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of source videos to inspect for each game.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Global maximum number of complete unique video records to write.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Ordinary public access. Access-control responses stop immediately and are never bypassed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "league": "mlb",
  "dates": "",
  "eventIds": [],
  "maxGames": 10,
  "maxVideosPerGame": 5,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

## `diagnostics` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,codingfrontend/espn-video-downloader"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/EAcpFPubMVzhWFQJX/builds/YyWduBRpgU75wNdPf/openapi.json