diff --git a/doc/protocols.texi b/doc/protocols.texi
index 5767e23f61..470c99ceb4 100644
--- a/doc/protocols.texi
+++ b/doc/protocols.texi
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ value is -1.
 If set to 1 use chunked Transfer-Encoding for posts, default is 1.
 
 @item content_type
-Set a specific content type for the POST messages.
+Set a specific content type for the POST messages or for listen mode.
 
 @item http_proxy
 set HTTP proxy to tunnel through e.g. http://example.com:1234
diff --git a/libavformat/http.c b/libavformat/http.c
index cb5824fabd..adb3d92e21 100644
--- a/libavformat/http.c
+++ b/libavformat/http.c
@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ static int http_write_reply(URLContext* h, int status_code)
     case 200:
         reply_code = 200;
         reply_text = "OK";
-        content_type = "application/octet-stream";
+        content_type = s->content_type ? s->content_type : "application/octet-stream";
         break;
     case AVERROR_HTTP_SERVER_ERROR:
     case 500: