diff --git a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
index 0d42c2a895..98f02331c1 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
@@ -760,13 +760,15 @@ def _extract_response(self, item_id, query, note='Downloading API JSON', headers
                     note='%s%s' % (note, ' (retry #%d)' % count if count else ''))
             except ExtractorError as e:
                 if isinstance(e.cause, network_exceptions):
-                    if isinstance(e.cause, compat_HTTPError) and not is_html(e.cause.read(512)):
-                        e.cause.seek(0)
-                        yt_error = try_get(
-                            self._parse_json(e.cause.read().decode(), item_id, fatal=False),
-                            lambda x: x['error']['message'], compat_str)
-                        if yt_error:
-                            self._report_alerts([('ERROR', yt_error)], fatal=False)
+                    if isinstance(e.cause, compat_HTTPError):
+                        first_bytes = e.cause.read(512)
+                        if not is_html(first_bytes):
+                            yt_error = try_get(
+                                self._parse_json(
+                                    self._webpage_read_content(e.cause, None, item_id, prefix=first_bytes) or '{}', item_id, fatal=False),
+                                lambda x: x['error']['message'], compat_str)
+                            if yt_error:
+                                self._report_alerts([('ERROR', yt_error)], fatal=False)
                     # Downloading page may result in intermittent 5xx HTTP error
                     # Sometimes a 404 is also recieved. See: https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/28289
                     # We also want to catch all other network exceptions since errors in later pages can be troublesome