diff --git a/youtube_dl/compat.py b/youtube_dl/compat.py
index 0c57c7aebf..e4b9286c06 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/compat.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/compat.py
@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@ try:
 except ImportError:  # Python 2
     import cookielib as compat_cookiejar
 
+try:
+    import http.cookies as compat_cookies
+except ImportError:  # Python 2
+    import Cookie as compat_cookies
+
 try:
     import html.entities as compat_html_entities
 except ImportError:  # Python 2
@@ -436,6 +441,7 @@ __all__ = [
     'compat_basestring',
     'compat_chr',
     'compat_cookiejar',
+    'compat_cookies',
     'compat_expanduser',
     'compat_get_terminal_size',
     'compat_getenv',
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
index d54866d1f7..dc50805041 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
@@ -14,10 +14,12 @@ import xml.etree.ElementTree
 
 from ..compat import (
     compat_cookiejar,
+    compat_cookies,
     compat_HTTPError,
     compat_http_client,
     compat_urllib_error,
     compat_urllib_parse_urlparse,
+    compat_urllib_request,
     compat_urlparse,
     compat_str,
 )
@@ -1074,6 +1076,12 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
             None, '/', True, False, expire_time, '', None, None, None)
         self._downloader.cookiejar.set_cookie(cookie)
 
+    def _get_cookies(self, url):
+        """ Return a compat_cookies.SimpleCookie with the cookies for the url """
+        req = compat_urllib_request.Request(url)
+        self._downloader.cookiejar.add_cookie_header(req)
+        return compat_cookies.SimpleCookie(req.get_header('Cookie'))
+
     def get_testcases(self, include_onlymatching=False):
         t = getattr(self, '_TEST', None)
         if t:
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/viewster.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/viewster.py
index 6ef36290b4..393b63618a 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/viewster.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/viewster.py
@@ -62,7 +62,6 @@ class ViewsterIE(InfoExtractor):
     }]
 
     _ACCEPT_HEADER = 'application/json, text/javascript, */*; q=0.01'
-    _AUTH_TOKEN = '/YqhSYsx8EaU9Bsta3ojlA=='
 
     def _download_json(self, url, video_id, note='Downloading JSON metadata', fatal=True):
         request = compat_urllib_request.Request(url)
@@ -72,6 +71,10 @@ class ViewsterIE(InfoExtractor):
 
     def _real_extract(self, url):
         video_id = self._match_id(url)
+        # Get 'api_token' cookie
+        self._request_webpage(url, video_id)
+        cookies = self._get_cookies(url)
+        self._AUTH_TOKEN = compat_urllib_parse.unquote(cookies['api_token'].value)
 
         info = self._download_json(
             'https://public-api.viewster.com/search/%s' % video_id,