diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/twitch.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/twitch.py
index 023911c41..891499a1f 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/twitch.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/twitch.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ from ..compat import (
     compat_urlparse,
 )
 from ..utils import (
+    encode_dict,
     ExtractorError,
     int_or_none,
     parse_duration,
@@ -27,8 +28,7 @@ class TwitchBaseIE(InfoExtractor):
 
     _API_BASE = 'https://api.twitch.tv'
     _USHER_BASE = 'http://usher.twitch.tv'
-    _LOGIN_URL = 'https://secure.twitch.tv/login'
-    _LOGIN_POST_URL = 'https://passport.twitch.tv/authentications/new'
+    _LOGIN_URL = 'http://www.twitch.tv/login'
     _NETRC_MACHINE = 'twitch'
 
     def _handle_error(self, response):
@@ -61,26 +61,28 @@ class TwitchBaseIE(InfoExtractor):
         if username is None:
             return
 
-        login_page = self._download_webpage(
+        login_page, handle = self._download_webpage_handle(
             self._LOGIN_URL, None, 'Downloading login page')
 
         login_form = self._hidden_inputs(login_page)
 
         login_form.update({
-            'login': username.encode('utf-8'),
-            'password': password.encode('utf-8'),
+            'username': username,
+            'password': password,
         })
 
+        redirect_url = handle.geturl()
+
         post_url = self._search_regex(
             r'<form[^>]+action=(["\'])(?P<url>.+?)\1', login_page,
-            'post url', default=self._LOGIN_POST_URL, group='url')
+            'post url', default=redirect_url, group='url')
 
         if not post_url.startswith('http'):
-            post_url = compat_urlparse.urljoin(self._LOGIN_URL, post_url)
+            post_url = compat_urlparse.urljoin(redirect_url, post_url)
 
         request = compat_urllib_request.Request(
-            post_url, compat_urllib_parse.urlencode(login_form).encode('utf-8'))
-        request.add_header('Referer', self._LOGIN_URL)
+            post_url, compat_urllib_parse.urlencode(encode_dict(login_form)).encode('utf-8'))
+        request.add_header('Referer', redirect_url)
         response = self._download_webpage(
             request, None, 'Logging in as %s' % username)