diff --git a/lib/media/closed_caption_parser.js b/lib/media/closed_caption_parser.js
index 622470475e..c73e2c6be6 100644
--- a/lib/media/closed_caption_parser.js
+++ b/lib/media/closed_caption_parser.js
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ shaka.media.ClosedCaptionParser = class {
     for (const captionPacket of captionPackets) {
       const uint8ArrayData =
           shaka.util.BufferUtils.toUint8(captionPacket.packet);
-      this.ceaDecoder_.extract(uint8ArrayData, captionPacket.pts);
+      if (uint8ArrayData.length > 0) {
+        this.ceaDecoder_.extract(uint8ArrayData, captionPacket.pts);
+      }
     }
 
     // Decode and return the parsed captions.
diff --git a/test/media/closed_caption_parser_unit.js b/test/media/closed_caption_parser_unit.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..086d51975b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/media/closed_caption_parser_unit.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+goog.require('shaka.media.ClosedCaptionParser');
+goog.require('shaka.test.Util');
+
+describe('ClosedCaptionParser', () => {
+  it('can handle empty caption packets', async () => {
+    const initSegment = await shaka.test.Util.fetch(
+        'base/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_init.mp4');
+    const videoSegment = await shaka.test.Util.fetch(
+        'base/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_segment.mp4');
+    const parser = new shaka.media.ClosedCaptionParser();
+    parser.init(initSegment);
+    parser.parseFrom(videoSegment);
+  });
+});
+
diff --git a/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_init.mp4 b/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_init.mp4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..41345d5263
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_init.mp4 differ
diff --git a/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_segment.mp4 b/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_segment.mp4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a7788fd742
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/test/assets/empty_caption_video_segment.mp4 differ