diff --git a/test/test_utils.py b/test/test_utils.py
index 2b93b3604..30738e7cf 100644
--- a/test/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/test_utils.py
@@ -1228,6 +1228,12 @@ def test_get_element_by_attribute(self):
self.assertEqual(get_element_by_attribute('class', 'foo', html), None)
self.assertEqual(get_element_by_attribute('class', 'no-such-foo', html), None)
+ html = '''
+
foo
+ '''
+
+ self.assertEqual(get_element_by_attribute('itemprop', 'author', html), 'foo')
+
def test_get_elements_by_class(self):
html = '''
nicealso nice
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index 39860e9d1..fdf5e29e7 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -365,9 +365,9 @@ def get_elements_by_attribute(attribute, value, html, escape_value=True):
retlist = []
for m in re.finditer(r'''(?xs)
<([a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+)
- (?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]*|="[^"]*"|='[^']*'))*?
+ (?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]*|="[^"]*"|='[^']*'|))*?
\s+%s=['"]?%s['"]?
- (?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]*|="[^"]*"|='[^']*'))*?
+ (?:\s+[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]+(?:=[a-zA-Z0-9:._-]*|="[^"]*"|='[^']*'|))*?
\s*>
(?P.*?)
\1>