diff --git a/libavformat/rtsp.c b/libavformat/rtsp.c
index 47120fdf61..5cffe0b6b5 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtsp.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtsp.c
@@ -1245,8 +1245,10 @@ start:
         content = av_malloc(content_length + 1);
         if (!content)
             return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
-        if (ffurl_read_complete(rt->rtsp_hd, content, content_length) != content_length)
+        if (ffurl_read_complete(rt->rtsp_hd, content, content_length) != content_length) {
+            av_freep(&content);
             return AVERROR(EIO);
+        }
         content[content_length] = '\0';
     }
     if (content_ptr)