diff --git a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
index b09cb0a795..19370f62b0 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ from .utils import (
     YoutubeDLCookieJar,
     YoutubeDLCookieProcessor,
     YoutubeDLHandler,
+    YoutubeDLRedirectHandler,
 )
 from .cache import Cache
 from .extractor import get_info_extractor, gen_extractor_classes, _LAZY_LOADER
@@ -2343,6 +2344,7 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
         debuglevel = 1 if self.params.get('debug_printtraffic') else 0
         https_handler = make_HTTPS_handler(self.params, debuglevel=debuglevel)
         ydlh = YoutubeDLHandler(self.params, debuglevel=debuglevel)
+        redirect_handler = YoutubeDLRedirectHandler()
         data_handler = compat_urllib_request_DataHandler()
 
         # When passing our own FileHandler instance, build_opener won't add the
@@ -2356,7 +2358,7 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
         file_handler.file_open = file_open
 
         opener = compat_urllib_request.build_opener(
-            proxy_handler, https_handler, cookie_processor, ydlh, data_handler, file_handler)
+            proxy_handler, https_handler, cookie_processor, ydlh, redirect_handler, data_handler, file_handler)
 
         # Delete the default user-agent header, which would otherwise apply in
         # cases where our custom HTTP handler doesn't come into play
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index f6204692a8..8ccf254895 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -2795,6 +2795,15 @@ class YoutubeDLCookieProcessor(compat_urllib_request.HTTPCookieProcessor):
     https_response = http_response
 
 
+class YoutubeDLRedirectHandler(compat_urllib_request.HTTPRedirectHandler):
+    if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+        def redirect_request(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers, newurl):
+            # On python 2 urlh.geturl() may sometimes return redirect URL
+            # as byte string instead of unicode. This workaround allows
+            # to force it always return unicode.
+            return compat_urllib_request.HTTPRedirectHandler.redirect_request(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers, compat_str(newurl))
+
+
 def extract_timezone(date_str):
     m = re.search(
         r'^.{8,}?(?P<tz>Z$| ?(?P<sign>\+|-)(?P<hours>[0-9]{2}):?(?P<minutes>[0-9]{2})$)',