diff --git a/test/test_compat.py b/test/test_compat.py
index 834f4bc55..b6bfad05e 100644
--- a/test/test_compat.py
+++ b/test/test_compat.py
@@ -74,10 +74,19 @@ class TestCompat(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(compat_shlex_split('-option "one two"'), ['-option', 'one two'])
 
     def test_compat_etree_fromstring(self):
-        xml = '<el foo="bar" spam="中文"></el>'
+        xml = '''
+            <root foo="bar" spam="中文">
+                <normal>foo</normal>
+                <chinese>中文</chinese>
+                <foo><bar>spam</bar></foo>
+            </root>
+        '''
         doc = compat_etree_fromstring(xml.encode('utf-8'))
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(doc.attrib['foo'], compat_str))
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(doc.attrib['spam'], compat_str))
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(doc.find('normal').text, compat_str))
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(doc.find('chinese').text, compat_str))
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(doc.find('foo/bar').text, compat_str))
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/youtube_dl/compat.py b/youtube_dl/compat.py
index f39d4e9a9..2d43ec852 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/compat.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/compat.py
@@ -216,9 +216,19 @@ except ImportError:  # Python 2.6
 if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
     compat_etree_fromstring = xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring
 else:
-    # on python 2.x the the attributes of a node aren't always unicode objects
+    # on python 2.x the attributes and text of a node aren't always unicode
+    # objects
     etree = xml.etree.ElementTree
 
+    try:
+        _etree_iter = etree.Element.iter
+    except AttributeError:  # Python <=2.6
+        def _etree_iter(root):
+            for el in root.findall('*'):
+                yield el
+                for sub in _etree_iter(el):
+                    yield sub
+
     # on 2.6 XML doesn't have a parser argument, function copied from CPython
     # 2.7 source
     def _XML(text, parser=None):
@@ -235,7 +245,11 @@ else:
         return el
 
     def compat_etree_fromstring(text):
-        return _XML(text, parser=etree.XMLParser(target=etree.TreeBuilder(element_factory=_element_factory)))
+        doc = _XML(text, parser=etree.XMLParser(target=etree.TreeBuilder(element_factory=_element_factory)))
+        for el in _etree_iter(doc):
+            if el.text is not None and isinstance(el.text, bytes):
+                el.text = el.text.decode('utf-8')
+        return doc
 
 try:
     from urllib.parse import parse_qs as compat_parse_qs
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/ard.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/ard.py
index 6f465789b..73be6d204 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/ard.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/ard.py
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ from ..utils import (
     parse_duration,
     unified_strdate,
     xpath_text,
-    parse_xml,
 )
+from ..compat import compat_etree_fromstring
 
 
 class ARDMediathekIE(InfoExtractor):
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ class ARDMediathekIE(InfoExtractor):
             raise ExtractorError('This program is only suitable for those aged 12 and older. Video %s is therefore only available between 20 pm and 6 am.' % video_id, expected=True)
 
         if re.search(r'[\?&]rss($|[=&])', url):
-            doc = parse_xml(webpage)
+            doc = compat_etree_fromstring(webpage.encode('utf-8'))
             if doc.tag == 'rss':
                 return GenericIE()._extract_rss(url, video_id, doc)
 
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py
index ca5fbafb2..1de96b268 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import sys
 from .common import InfoExtractor
 from .youtube import YoutubeIE
 from ..compat import (
+    compat_etree_fromstring,
     compat_urllib_parse_unquote,
     compat_urllib_request,
     compat_urlparse,
@@ -21,7 +22,6 @@ from ..utils import (
     HEADRequest,
     is_html,
     orderedSet,
-    parse_xml,
     smuggle_url,
     unescapeHTML,
     unified_strdate,
@@ -1237,7 +1237,7 @@ class GenericIE(InfoExtractor):
 
         # Is it an RSS feed, a SMIL file or a XSPF playlist?
         try:
-            doc = parse_xml(webpage)
+            doc = compat_etree_fromstring(webpage.encode('utf-8'))
             if doc.tag == 'rss':
                 return self._extract_rss(url, video_id, doc)
             elif re.match(r'^(?:{[^}]+})?smil$', doc.tag):
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index 7d846d680..c761ea22a 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -1652,29 +1652,6 @@ def encode_dict(d, encoding='utf-8'):
     return dict((k.encode(encoding), v.encode(encoding)) for k, v in d.items())
 
 
-try:
-    etree_iter = xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.iter
-except AttributeError:  # Python <=2.6
-    etree_iter = lambda n: n.findall('.//*')
-
-
-def parse_xml(s):
-    class TreeBuilder(xml.etree.ElementTree.TreeBuilder):
-        def doctype(self, name, pubid, system):
-            pass  # Ignore doctypes
-
-    parser = xml.etree.ElementTree.XMLParser(target=TreeBuilder())
-    kwargs = {'parser': parser} if sys.version_info >= (2, 7) else {}
-    tree = xml.etree.ElementTree.XML(s.encode('utf-8'), **kwargs)
-    # Fix up XML parser in Python 2.x
-    if sys.version_info < (3, 0):
-        for n in etree_iter(tree):
-            if n.text is not None:
-                if not isinstance(n.text, compat_str):
-                    n.text = n.text.decode('utf-8')
-    return tree
-
-
 US_RATINGS = {
     'G': 0,
     'PG': 10,