CNN Video Scraper

Scrape CNN videos to get direct, downloadable MP4 URLs and clean metadata - title, description, thumbnail, duration, and publish dates. Point it at individual CNN video pages or at a listing/section page and it returns a structured dataset you can export as JSON, CSV, or Excel, or pull via the Apify API.

You get a direct, progressive MP4 link for each video - a plain file you can download over standard HTTP. Runs are fast and inexpensive, and the Actor is built to keep working reliably as CNN evolves its site, so you don't depend on a generic downloader that breaks with every player update.

What does CNN Video Scraper do?

• Extracts the direct MP4 URL for each CNN video (progressive download, resumable via HTTP range requests).
• Collects metadata: title, description, thumbnail image, duration, upload date, and last-modified date.
• Accepts either direct video URLs or listing/section pages (e.g. https://www.cnn.com/videos), discovering the video pages linked from them.
• Runs on the Apify platform with scheduling, API access, integrations, proxy rotation, and monitoring built in.

Why use CNN Video Scraper?

• Media monitoring & archiving - capture CNN video coverage of a topic with direct download links.
• Research & journalism - build datasets of CNN video metadata for analysis.
• Content pipelines - feed video URLs and metadata into your own tooling.
• Stability - built to keep working across CNN player and site changes that break generic downloaders.

How to use CNN Video Scraper

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. In the Input tab, add one or more Start URLs - either CNN video pages or a listing page such as https://www.cnn.com/videos.
3. Optionally set Max videos to cap how many items are scraped.
4. Click Start.
5. When the run finishes, open the Output/Dataset tab and export as JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel.

Input

Field	Type	Description
startUrls	array	CNN video pages or listing/section pages to scrape. Required.
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of videos to scrape (0 = unlimited). Default 50.
crawlListingPages	boolean	Follow video links found on listing pages. Default true. Turn off to scrape only the exact URLs you provide.
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings. Apify Proxy is optional but helps with rate limiting on large runs.

A start URL is either a listing/section page (scanned for the video links it contains) or an individual video page (scraped directly).

Example inputs

Default - scrape the main video feed:

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.cnn.com/videos" }],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "crawlListingPages": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Scrape specific topic/section pages: section landing pages embed video links, so they work like /videos. Supported sections include /business, /politics, /world, /us, /health, /entertainment, /style, /travel, /sport, /science, /climate.

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.cnn.com/business" },
    { "url": "https://www.cnn.com/politics" },
    { "url": "https://www.cnn.com/world" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Scrape specific video pages only: when you already have exact video URLs, turn off listing discovery so only those pages are scraped.

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/13/us/video/some-clip-digvid" },
    { "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/12/business/video/another-clip-cnnbusiness" }
  ],
  "crawlListingPages": false
}

Unlimited run over a whole section:

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.cnn.com/world" }],
  "maxItems": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Output

Each dataset item represents one CNN video:

{
  "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/13/us/video/bison-tosses-man-into-the-air-at-yellowstone-digvid",
  "title": "Bison tosses man into the air at Yellowstone",
  "description": "A bison tossed a man into the air at Yellowstone National Park...",
  "videoUrl": "https://clips-media-aka.warnermediacdn.com/cnn/clips/2026-07/2312189-.../mp4/...-1920x1080_8000k.mp4",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/....jpg?c=original",
  "durationIso": "PT00H01M00S",
  "durationSeconds": 60,
  "uploadDate": "2026-07-13T14:29:15.432Z",
  "dateModified": "2026-07-13T14:30:59.991Z",
  "embedUrl": "https://fave.api.cnn.io/v1/fav/?video=...",
  "section": "us",
  "clipId": "2312189"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Data table

Field	Description
url	The CNN video page URL.
title	Video headline.
description	Short description / synopsis.
videoUrl	Direct MP4 download URL (WarnerMedia CDN).
thumbnailUrl	Poster / still image URL.
durationIso	Duration in ISO-8601 (e.g. PT00H01M00S).
durationSeconds	Duration in whole seconds.
uploadDate	When the video was published.
dateModified	When the video record was last modified.
embedUrl	CNN's embeddable player URL.
section	CNN section the video belongs to (e.g. us, politics, world).
clipId	CNN's internal numeric clip id.

How much does it cost to scrape CNN videos?

The Actor is lightweight, so runs are fast and cheap - typically a fraction of a compute unit for dozens of videos. To control cost on large jobs, set Max videos and consider running on a schedule for incremental captures. Apify's free tier is enough to try it and to run small jobs.

Tips & advanced options

• Scrape a whole section: pass a section listing page as a start URL and leave crawlListingPages on.
• Scrape exact videos only: paste the specific video URLs and set crawlListingPages to false.
• Cap cost: use maxItems.
• Downloading the MP4: videoUrl supports HTTP range requests, so downloads are resumable.

FAQ, disclaimers & support

Which CNN videos are supported? CNN's free digital clips (the video pages that make up most of the /videos feed). A listing page may surface only a portion of its videos; for exhaustive coverage, provide specific video or section URLs.

Are TV-authenticated or cable-login segments supported? No. Content behind a TV-provider login or DRM protection is not available for direct download and is out of scope.

Is scraping CNN legal? This Actor collects publicly available metadata and media URLs that CNN publishes in standard web markup. You are responsible for complying with CNN's Terms of Service and applicable copyright law, and for how you use any downloaded content. Do not redistribute copyrighted video without permission.

Found a bug or need a custom solution? Open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab.