diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index d7b737e21..653a49055 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -663,6 +663,15 @@ def _create_http_connection(ydl_handler, http_class, is_https, *args, **kwargs):
     return hc
 
 
+def handle_youtubedl_headers(headers):
+    if 'Youtubedl-no-compression' in headers:
+        filtered_headers = dict((k, v) for k, v in headers.items() if k.lower() != 'accept-encoding')
+        del filtered_headers['Youtubedl-no-compression']
+        return filtered_headers
+
+    return headers
+
+
 class YoutubeDLHandler(compat_urllib_request.HTTPHandler):
     """Handler for HTTP requests and responses.
 
@@ -731,10 +740,8 @@ class YoutubeDLHandler(compat_urllib_request.HTTPHandler):
             # The dict keys are capitalized because of this bug by urllib
             if h.capitalize() not in req.headers:
                 req.add_header(h, v)
-        if 'Youtubedl-no-compression' in req.headers:
-            if 'Accept-encoding' in req.headers:
-                del req.headers['Accept-encoding']
-            del req.headers['Youtubedl-no-compression']
+
+        req.headers = handle_youtubedl_headers(req.headers)
 
         if sys.version_info < (2, 7) and '#' in req.get_full_url():
             # Python 2.6 is brain-dead when it comes to fragments