diff --git a/test/test_utils.py b/test/test_utils.py
index 64fad58ad..e02069c4d 100644
--- a/test/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/test_utils.py
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ from youtube_dl.utils import (
     xpath_with_ns,
     render_table,
     match_str,
+    url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes,
 )
 
 
@@ -501,6 +502,21 @@ ffmpeg version 2.4.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg ...'''), '2.4.4')
             'like_count > 100 & dislike_count <? 50 & description',
             {'like_count': 190, 'dislike_count': 10}))
 
+    def test_url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(self):
+        self.assertEqual(url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+            'http://hostname/foo//bar/filename.html'),
+            'http://hostname/foo/bar/filename.html')
+        self.assertEqual(url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+            'http://hostname//foo/bar/filename.html'),
+            'http://hostname/foo/bar/filename.html')
+        self.assertEqual(url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+            'http://hostname//'), 'http://hostname/')
+        self.assertEqual(url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+            'http://hostname/foo/bar/filename.html'),
+            'http://hostname/foo/bar/filename.html')
+        self.assertEqual(url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+            'http://hostname/'), 'http://hostname/')
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/sohu.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/sohu.py
index 335e84fab..5adc734d9 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/sohu.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/sohu.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from ..compat import (
     compat_str,
     compat_urllib_request
 )
+from ..utils import url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes
 
 
 class SohuIE(InfoExtractor):
@@ -105,11 +106,8 @@ class SohuIE(InfoExtractor):
 
                 part_info = part_str.split('|')
 
-                # Sanitize URL to prevent download failure
-                if part_info[0][-1] == '/' and su[i][0] == '/':
-                    su[i] = su[i][1:]
-
-                video_url = '%s%s?key=%s' % (part_info[0], su[i], part_info[3])
+                video_url = url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(
+                    '%s%s?key=%s' % (part_info[0], su[i], part_info[3]))
 
                 formats.append({
                     'url': video_url,
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index 7426e2a1f..ef14f9a36 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -1789,3 +1789,18 @@ class PerRequestProxyHandler(compat_urllib_request.ProxyHandler):
             return None  # No Proxy
         return compat_urllib_request.ProxyHandler.proxy_open(
             self, req, proxy, type)
+
+
+def url_sanitize_consecutive_slashes(url):
+    """Sanitize URLs with consecutive slashes
+
+    For example, transform both
+        http://hostname/foo//bar/filename.html
+    and
+        http://hostname//foo/bar/filename.html
+    into
+        http://hostname/foo/bar/filename.html
+    """
+    parsed_url = list(compat_urlparse.urlparse(url))
+    parsed_url[2] = re.sub(r'/{2,}', '/', parsed_url[2])
+    return compat_urlparse.urlunparse(parsed_url)