diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
index 1ab546a83..15e327ec8 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
@@ -1074,7 +1074,7 @@ class YoutubeIE(YoutubeBaseInfoExtractor):
 
         m = re.findall(r'''<meta(?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+|="[^"]+"|='[^']+'))*?\s+property=['"]?og:video:tag['"]?(?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+|="[^"]+"|='[^']+'))*?\s+content=['"]?([^>'"]+?)['"]?\s*>'''
         , video_webpage, re.DOTALL | re.IGNORECASE);
-        video_tags = u", ".join(m)
+        video_tags = ", ".join(m)
         # description
         video_description = get_element_by_id("eow-description", video_webpage)
         if video_description: