diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
index 80b1e128a1..9cf73272fb 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
@@ -260,6 +260,7 @@
 from .viddler import ViddlerIE
 from .videobam import VideoBamIE
 from .videodetective import VideoDetectiveIE
+from .videolecturesnet import VideoLecturesNetIE
 from .videofyme import VideofyMeIE
 from .videopremium import VideoPremiumIE
 from .vimeo import (
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/videolecturesnet.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/videolecturesnet.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f8b946a883
--- /dev/null
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/videolecturesnet.py
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+import re
+
+from .common import InfoExtractor
+from ..utils import (
+    find_xpath_attr,
+    int_or_none,
+    parse_duration,
+    unified_strdate,
+)
+
+
+class VideoLecturesNetIE(InfoExtractor):
+    _VALID_URL = r'http://(?:www\.)?videolectures\.net/(?P<id>[^/#?]+)/'
+    IE_NAME = 'videolectures.net'
+
+    _TEST = {
+        'url': 'http://videolectures.net/promogram_igor_mekjavic_eng/',
+        'info_dict': {
+            'id': 'promogram_igor_mekjavic_eng',
+            'ext': 'mp4',
+            'title': 'Automatics, robotics and biocybernetics',
+            'description': 'md5:815fc1deb6b3a2bff99de2d5325be482',
+            'upload_date': '20130627',
+            'duration': 565,
+            'thumbnail': 're:http://.*\.jpg',
+        },
+    }
+
+    def _real_extract(self, url):
+        mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
+        video_id = mobj.group('id')
+
+        smil_url = 'http://videolectures.net/%s/video/1/smil.xml' % video_id
+        smil = self._download_xml(smil_url, video_id)
+
+        title = find_xpath_attr(smil, './/meta', 'name', 'title').attrib['content']
+        description = find_xpath_attr(smil, './/meta', 'name', 'abstract').attrib['content']
+        upload_date = unified_strdate(
+            find_xpath_attr(smil, './/meta', 'name', 'date').attrib['content'])
+
+        switch = smil.find('.//switch')
+        duration = parse_duration(switch.attrib.get('dur'))
+        thumbnail_el = find_xpath_attr(switch, './image', 'type', 'thumbnail')
+        thumbnail = (
+            None if thumbnail_el is None else thumbnail_el.attrib.get('src'))
+
+        formats = [{
+            'url': v.attrib['src'],
+            'width': int_or_none(v.attrib.get('width')),
+            'height': int_or_none(v.attrib.get('height')),
+            'filesize': int_or_none(v.attrib.get('size')),
+            'tbr': int_or_none(v.attrib.get('systemBitrate')) / 1000.0,
+            'ext': v.attrib.get('ext'),
+        } for v in switch.findall('./video')
+            if v.attrib.get('proto') == 'http']
+
+        return {
+            'id': video_id,
+            'title': title,
+            'description': description,
+            'upload_date': upload_date,
+            'duration': duration,
+            'thumbnail': thumbnail,
+            'formats': formats,
+        }
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index 7809c4e0b8..3574fc615c 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -763,6 +763,10 @@ def http_response(self, req, resp):
 
 def unified_strdate(date_str):
     """Return a string with the date in the format YYYYMMDD"""
+
+    if date_str is None:
+        return None
+
     upload_date = None
     #Replace commas
     date_str = date_str.replace(',', ' ')