Failed to parse JSON - caused by JSONDecodeError

[Archifact]

Hi,
I am having difficulties downloading videos from a site (pliease see the URL in the terminal output below). It has always been working perfectly before but now there are some issues.

youtube-dl --version
2019.11.28

youtube-dl --verbose https://www.raiplay.it/video/2019/10/la-grande-storia-doc---la-memoria-del-condor-69c20436-efeb-4a98-92f5-570afcdf09e6.html
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['--verbose', 'https://www.raiplay.it/video/2019/10/la-grande-storia-doc---la-memoria-del-condor-69c20436-efeb-4a98-92f5-570afcdf09e6.html']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.11.28
[debug] Python version 3.8.0 (CPython) - Linux-5.4.2-1-MANJARO-x86_64-with-glibc2.2.5
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.2.1, ffprobe 4.2.1, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[RaiPlay] 69c20436-efeb-4a98-92f5-570afcdf09e6: Downloading video JSON
ERROR: 69c20436-efeb-4a98-92f5-570afcdf09e6: Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError('Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)')); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see https://yt-dl.org/update on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 899, in _parse_json
return json.loads(json_string)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/init.py", line 357, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 899, in _parse_json
return json.loads(json_string)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/init.py", line 357, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 796, in extract_info
ie_result = ie.extract(url)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 530, in extract
ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/rai.py", line 173, in _real_extract
media = self._download_json(
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 888, in _download_json
res = self._download_json_handle(
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 874, in _download_json_handle
return self._parse_json(
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 903, in _parse_json
raise ExtractorError(errmsg, cause=ve)
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: 69c20436-efeb-4a98-92f5-570afcdf09e6: Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError('Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)')); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see https://yt-dl.org/update on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

I'll be truly grateful if there is a fix for this or if you could point me to a direction I could solve this issue.

Thank you!

[donatom805]

I have been getting the same error for the past 1 - 2 months when using yt-dl for raiplay.it streams/videos. I am using the latest youtube-dl (youtube-dl-2019.11.28).

Here is my debug info:

$ youtube-dl https://www.raiplay.it/video/2018/04/FILM-Nemiche-per-la-pelle-3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d.html
[RaiPlay] 3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d: Downloading video JSON
ERROR: 3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d: Failed to parse JSON (caused by ValueError('No JSON object could be decoded',)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see https://yt-dl.org/update on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
[donatom@unknown9cd21e30a7cb Desktop]$ youtube-dl -v https://www.raiplay.it/video/2018/04/FILM-Nemiche-per-la-pelle-3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d.html
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'https://www.raiplay.it/video/2018/04/FILM-Nemiche-per-la-pelle-3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d.html']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.11.28
[debug] Python version 2.7.17 (CPython) - Linux-5.3.11-200.fc30.x86_64-x86_64-with-fedora-30-Thirty
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.1.4, ffprobe 4.1.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[RaiPlay] 3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d: Downloading video JSON
ERROR: 3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d: Failed to parse JSON (caused by ValueError('No JSON object could be decoded',)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see https://yt-dl.org/update on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 899, in _parse_json
return json.loads(json_string)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/json/init.py", line 339, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 364, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 382, in raw_decode
raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 796, in extract_info
ie_result = ie.extract(url)
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 530, in extract
ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/rai.py", line 174, in _real_extract
'%s?json' % url, video_id, 'Downloading video JSON')
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 892, in _download_json
expected_status=expected_status)
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 876, in _download_json_handle
fatal=fatal), urlh
File "/home/donatom/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 903, in _parse_json
raise ExtractorError(errmsg, cause=ve)
ExtractorError: 3bfab96d-9153-4a14-87a7-0064adcab88d: Failed to parse JSON (caused by ValueError('No JSON object could be decoded',)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see https://yt-dl.org/update on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

Hopefully someone can come up with a fix.