diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index be3f62da70..52f0dd09aa 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -730,7 +730,8 @@ def unified_strdate(date_str, day_first=True):
     # Replace commas
     date_str = date_str.replace(',', ' ')
     # %z (UTC offset) is only supported in python>=3.2
-    date_str = re.sub(r' ?(\+|-)[0-9]{2}:?[0-9]{2}$', '', date_str)
+    if not re.match(r'^[0-9]{1,2}-[0-9]{1,2}-[0-9]{4}$', date_str):
+        date_str = re.sub(r' ?(\+|-)[0-9]{2}:?[0-9]{2}$', '', date_str)
     # Remove AM/PM + timezone
     date_str = re.sub(r'(?i)\s*(?:AM|PM)(?:\s+[A-Z]+)?', '', date_str)