Add custom header field in request of AVPlayer

You'll need to request the data yourself via a generic HTTP connection mechanism such as NSURLConnection. If the NSHTTPURLResponse's headers pass your test, then you should save it into the NSCachesDirectory and pass off the URL to this resource to the AVPlayer like so:

NSData *data = //your downloaded data.
NSString *filePath = //generate random path under NSCachesDirectory
[data writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];

AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath]];
//...

You can use AVURLAssetHTTPHeaderFieldsKey of AVURLAsset's init option to modify request headers.

For example:

NSMutableDictionary * headers = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[headers setObject:@"Your UA" forKey:@"User-Agent"];
AVURLAsset * asset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:URL options:@{@"AVURLAssetHTTPHeaderFieldsKey" : headers}];
AVPlayerItem * item = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:asset];
self.player = [[AVPlayer alloc] initWithPlayerItem:item];

Note: I found this key in sources of WebKit, but this is a Private option key, So your app may reject by AppStore if you use this.

Answer in Swift, AVURLAssetHTTPHeaderFieldsKey option will work like a charm.

 let headers: [String: String] = [
    "custome_header": "custome value"
 ]
 let asset = AVURLAsset(url: URL, options: ["AVURLAssetHTTPHeaderFieldsKey": headers])
 let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(asset: asset)
 player = AVPlayer(playerItem: item)