wow thanks for the great answer and for the link! This seems to work fine for certain channels, but for other I get hit by a
<span style="color:#323232;">Your input can't be opened:
</span><span style="color:#323232;">VLC is unable to open the MRL 'https://mediapolis.rai.it/relinker/relinkerServlet.htm?cont=308718'. Check the log for details.
</span>
the channel in question is Rai1, and in the playlist it’s marked as “Geo-blocked” but… I’m in italy and I’m not using any VPN…