diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/shared.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/shared.py
index 26ced716e..9f3e944e7 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/shared.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/shared.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ def _real_extract(self, url):
         video_url = self._html_search_regex(
             r'data-url="([^"]+)"', video_page, 'video URL')
         title = base64.b64decode(self._html_search_meta(
-            'full:title', webpage, 'title')).decode('utf-8')
+            'full:title', webpage, 'title').encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
         filesize = int_or_none(self._html_search_meta(
             'full:size', webpage, 'file size', fatal=False))
         thumbnail = self._html_search_regex(