diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
index c51a3a07d..ed62e26ff 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py
@@ -400,21 +400,24 @@ class InfoExtractor(object):
         self.set_downloader(downloader)
 
     @classmethod
-    def suitable(cls, url):
-        """Receives a URL and returns True if suitable for this IE."""
-
+    def valid_url_match(cls, url):
         # This does not use has/getattr intentionally - we want to know whether
         # we have cached the regexp for *this* class, whereas getattr would also
         # match the superclass
         if '_VALID_URL_RE' not in cls.__dict__:
             cls._VALID_URL_RE = re.compile(cls._VALID_URL)
-        return cls._VALID_URL_RE.match(url) is not None
+        m = cls._VALID_URL_RE.match(url)
+        return m
+
+    @classmethod
+    def suitable(cls, url):
+        """Receives a URL and returns True if suitable for this IE."""
+        m = cls.valid_url_match(url)
+        return m is not None
 
     @classmethod
     def _match_id(cls, url):
-        if '_VALID_URL_RE' not in cls.__dict__:
-            cls._VALID_URL_RE = re.compile(cls._VALID_URL)
-        m = cls._VALID_URL_RE.match(url)
+        m = cls.valid_url_match(url)
         assert m
         return compat_str(m.group('id'))