diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
index b6a7cd5e2..fc3e02663 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import base64
 import hashlib
 import json
@@ -202,17 +204,17 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
             self.report_download_webpage(video_id)
         elif note is not False:
             if video_id is None:
-                self.to_screen(u'%s' % (note,))
+                self.to_screen('%s' % (note,))
             else:
-                self.to_screen(u'%s: %s' % (video_id, note))
+                self.to_screen('%s: %s' % (video_id, note))
         try:
             return self._downloader.urlopen(url_or_request)
         except (compat_urllib_error.URLError, compat_http_client.HTTPException, socket.error) as err:
             if errnote is False:
                 return False
             if errnote is None:
-                errnote = u'Unable to download webpage'
-            errmsg = u'%s: %s' % (errnote, compat_str(err))
+                errnote = 'Unable to download webpage'
+            errmsg = '%s: %s' % (errnote, compat_str(err))
             if fatal:
                 raise ExtractorError(errmsg, sys.exc_info()[2], cause=err)
             else:
@@ -249,7 +251,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
                 url = url_or_request.get_full_url()
             except AttributeError:
                 url = url_or_request
-            self.to_screen(u'Dumping request to ' + url)
+            self.to_screen('Dumping request to ' + url)
             dump = base64.b64encode(webpage_bytes).decode('ascii')
             self._downloader.to_screen(dump)
         if self._downloader.params.get('write_pages', False):
@@ -259,11 +261,11 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
                 url = url_or_request
             basen = '%s_%s' % (video_id, url)
             if len(basen) > 240:
-                h = u'___' + hashlib.md5(basen.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
+                h = '___' + hashlib.md5(basen.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
                 basen = basen[:240 - len(h)] + h
             raw_filename = basen + '.dump'
             filename = sanitize_filename(raw_filename, restricted=True)
-            self.to_screen(u'Saving request to ' + filename)
+            self.to_screen('Saving request to ' + filename)
             with open(filename, 'wb') as outf:
                 outf.write(webpage_bytes)
 
@@ -272,14 +274,14 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
         except LookupError:
             content = webpage_bytes.decode('utf-8', 'replace')
 
-        if (u'<title>Access to this site is blocked</title>' in content and
-                u'Websense' in content[:512]):
-            msg = u'Access to this webpage has been blocked by Websense filtering software in your network.'
+        if ('<title>Access to this site is blocked</title>' in content and
+                'Websense' in content[:512]):
+            msg = 'Access to this webpage has been blocked by Websense filtering software in your network.'
             blocked_iframe = self._html_search_regex(
                 r'<iframe src="([^"]+)"', content,
-                u'Websense information URL', default=None)
+                'Websense information URL', default=None)
             if blocked_iframe:
-                msg += u' Visit %s for more details' % blocked_iframe
+                msg += ' Visit %s for more details' % blocked_iframe
             raise ExtractorError(msg, expected=True)
 
         return (content, urlh)
@@ -294,7 +296,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
             return content
 
     def _download_xml(self, url_or_request, video_id,
-                      note=u'Downloading XML', errnote=u'Unable to download XML',
+                      note='Downloading XML', errnote='Unable to download XML',
                       transform_source=None, fatal=True):
         """Return the xml as an xml.etree.ElementTree.Element"""
         xml_string = self._download_webpage(
@@ -306,8 +308,8 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
         return xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(xml_string.encode('utf-8'))
 
     def _download_json(self, url_or_request, video_id,
-                       note=u'Downloading JSON metadata',
-                       errnote=u'Unable to download JSON metadata',
+                       note='Downloading JSON metadata',
+                       errnote='Unable to download JSON metadata',
                        transform_source=None,
                        fatal=True):
         json_string = self._download_webpage(
@@ -322,29 +324,29 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
             raise ExtractorError('Failed to download JSON', cause=ve)
 
     def report_warning(self, msg, video_id=None):
-        idstr = u'' if video_id is None else u'%s: ' % video_id
+        idstr = '' if video_id is None else '%s: ' % video_id
         self._downloader.report_warning(
-            u'[%s] %s%s' % (self.IE_NAME, idstr, msg))
+            '[%s] %s%s' % (self.IE_NAME, idstr, msg))
 
     def to_screen(self, msg):
         """Print msg to screen, prefixing it with '[ie_name]'"""
-        self._downloader.to_screen(u'[%s] %s' % (self.IE_NAME, msg))
+        self._downloader.to_screen('[%s] %s' % (self.IE_NAME, msg))
 
     def report_extraction(self, id_or_name):
         """Report information extraction."""
-        self.to_screen(u'%s: Extracting information' % id_or_name)
+        self.to_screen('%s: Extracting information' % id_or_name)
 
     def report_download_webpage(self, video_id):
         """Report webpage download."""
-        self.to_screen(u'%s: Downloading webpage' % video_id)
+        self.to_screen('%s: Downloading webpage' % video_id)
 
     def report_age_confirmation(self):
         """Report attempt to confirm age."""
-        self.to_screen(u'Confirming age')
+        self.to_screen('Confirming age')
 
     def report_login(self):
         """Report attempt to log in."""
-        self.to_screen(u'Logging in')
+        self.to_screen('Logging in')
 
     #Methods for following #608
     @staticmethod
@@ -384,7 +386,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
                     break
 
         if os.name != 'nt' and sys.stderr.isatty():
-            _name = u'\033[0;34m%s\033[0m' % name
+            _name = '\033[0;34m%s\033[0m' % name
         else:
             _name = name
 
@@ -394,10 +396,10 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
         elif default is not _NO_DEFAULT:
             return default
         elif fatal:
-            raise RegexNotFoundError(u'Unable to extract %s' % _name)
+            raise RegexNotFoundError('Unable to extract %s' % _name)
         else:
-            self._downloader.report_warning(u'unable to extract %s; '
-                u'please report this issue on http://yt-dl.org/bug' % _name)
+            self._downloader.report_warning('unable to extract %s; '
+                'please report this issue on http://yt-dl.org/bug' % _name)
             return None
 
     def _html_search_regex(self, pattern, string, name, default=_NO_DEFAULT, fatal=True, flags=0):
@@ -436,7 +438,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
                 else:
                     raise netrc.NetrcParseError('No authenticators for %s' % self._NETRC_MACHINE)
             except (IOError, netrc.NetrcParseError) as err:
-                self._downloader.report_warning(u'parsing .netrc: %s' % compat_str(err))
+                self._downloader.report_warning('parsing .netrc: %s' % compat_str(err))
         
         return (username, password)
 
@@ -476,7 +478,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
         return unescapeHTML(escaped)
 
     def _og_search_thumbnail(self, html, **kargs):
-        return self._og_search_property('image', html, u'thumbnail url', fatal=False, **kargs)
+        return self._og_search_property('image', html, 'thumbnail url', fatal=False, **kargs)
 
     def _og_search_description(self, html, **kargs):
         return self._og_search_property('description', html, fatal=False, **kargs)
@@ -535,7 +537,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
 
     def _sort_formats(self, formats):
         if not formats:
-            raise ExtractorError(u'No video formats found')
+            raise ExtractorError('No video formats found')
 
         def _formats_key(f):
             # TODO remove the following workaround
@@ -555,9 +557,9 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
 
             if f.get('vcodec') == 'none':  # audio only
                 if self._downloader.params.get('prefer_free_formats'):
-                    ORDER = [u'aac', u'mp3', u'm4a', u'webm', u'ogg', u'opus']
+                    ORDER = ['aac', 'mp3', 'm4a', 'webm', 'ogg', 'opus']
                 else:
-                    ORDER = [u'webm', u'opus', u'ogg', u'mp3', u'aac', u'm4a']
+                    ORDER = ['webm', 'opus', 'ogg', 'mp3', 'aac', 'm4a']
                 ext_preference = 0
                 try:
                     audio_ext_preference = ORDER.index(f['ext'])
@@ -565,9 +567,9 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
                     audio_ext_preference = -1
             else:
                 if self._downloader.params.get('prefer_free_formats'):
-                    ORDER = [u'flv', u'mp4', u'webm']
+                    ORDER = ['flv', 'mp4', 'webm']
                 else:
-                    ORDER = [u'webm', u'flv', u'mp4']
+                    ORDER = ['webm', 'flv', 'mp4']
                 try:
                     ext_preference = ORDER.index(f['ext'])
                 except ValueError:
@@ -609,7 +611,7 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
 
     def _sleep(self, timeout, video_id, msg_template=None):
         if msg_template is None:
-            msg_template = u'%(video_id)s: Waiting for %(timeout)s seconds'
+            msg_template = '%(video_id)s: Waiting for %(timeout)s seconds'
         msg = msg_template % {'video_id': video_id, 'timeout': timeout}
         self.to_screen(msg)
         time.sleep(timeout)
@@ -704,7 +706,7 @@ class SearchInfoExtractor(InfoExtractor):
     def _real_extract(self, query):
         mobj = re.match(self._make_valid_url(), query)
         if mobj is None:
-            raise ExtractorError(u'Invalid search query "%s"' % query)
+            raise ExtractorError('Invalid search query "%s"' % query)
 
         prefix = mobj.group('prefix')
         query = mobj.group('query')
@@ -715,9 +717,9 @@ class SearchInfoExtractor(InfoExtractor):
         else:
             n = int(prefix)
             if n <= 0:
-                raise ExtractorError(u'invalid download number %s for query "%s"' % (n, query))
+                raise ExtractorError('invalid download number %s for query "%s"' % (n, query))
             elif n > self._MAX_RESULTS:
-                self._downloader.report_warning(u'%s returns max %i results (you requested %i)' % (self._SEARCH_KEY, self._MAX_RESULTS, n))
+                self._downloader.report_warning('%s returns max %i results (you requested %i)' % (self._SEARCH_KEY, self._MAX_RESULTS, n))
                 n = self._MAX_RESULTS
             return self._get_n_results(query, n)