Is it because the playlist is structured as m3u8 files inside a m3u8 file (which generally should be OK, at least others do it also)? Or is it because the nested m3u8 files consist of a couple of parts and the image should be declared in the nested m3u8s (which are out of my control)? Another potential cause could be that VLC is can only handle specific image file formats for the playlist. So I downloaded on of them the used a local absolute path to point to the image inside the m3u8 file. VLC developer for appleOS since before you were born. This will be part of subsequent updates later this year. I considered the problem to be that the icon images are located on the web. VLC for iPhone currently does not support management of playlist files such as m3u. This is how the playlist file looks like principally: #EXTM3U Unfortunately I was not successful in that the VLC Player does not show any of the icon images. I would like to add icons the the entries of the playlist. The streams themselves are m3u8 files on the web. I'm assembling a m3u8 playlist of TV live streams.