diff --git a/src/media-segment-request.js b/src/media-segment-request.js
index c61689464..10adb71b9 100644
--- a/src/media-segment-request.js
+++ b/src/media-segment-request.js
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ const handleInitSegmentResponse = (segment, captionParser, finishProcessingFn) =
   segment.map.bytes = new Uint8Array(request.response);
 
   // Initialize CaptionParser if it hasn't been yet
-  if (!captionParser.isInitialized()) {
+  if (captionParser && !captionParser.isInitialized()) {
     captionParser.init();
   }
 
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ const handleSegmentResponse = (segment, captionParser, finishProcessingFn) => (e
 
   // This is likely an FMP4 and has the init segment.
   // Run through the CaptionParser in case there are captions.
-  if (segment.map && segment.map.bytes) {
+  if (captionParser && segment.map && segment.map.bytes) {
     // Initialize CaptionParser if it hasn't been yet
     if (!captionParser.isInitialized()) {
       captionParser.init();
diff --git a/src/segment-loader.js b/src/segment-loader.js
index 1ce865548..a0b3610a1 100644
--- a/src/segment-loader.js
+++ b/src/segment-loader.js
@@ -189,7 +189,11 @@ export default class SegmentLoader extends videojs.EventTarget {
     this.keyCache_ = {};
 
     // Fmp4 CaptionParser
-    this.captionParser_ = new CaptionParser();
+    if (this.loaderType_ === 'main') {
+      this.captionParser_ = new CaptionParser();
+    } else {
+      this.captionParser_ = null;
+    }
 
     this.decrypter_ = settings.decrypter;
 
@@ -250,7 +254,9 @@ export default class SegmentLoader extends videojs.EventTarget {
       this.sourceUpdater_.dispose();
     }
     this.resetStats_();
-    this.captionParser_.reset();
+    if (this.captionParser_) {
+      this.captionParser_.reset();
+    }
   }
 
   /**
@@ -606,7 +612,9 @@ export default class SegmentLoader extends videojs.EventTarget {
     this.resetLoader();
     this.remove(0, this.duration_(), done);
     // clears fmp4 captions
-    this.captionParser_.clearAllCaptions();
+    if (this.captionParser_) {
+      this.captionParser_.clearAllCaptions();
+    }
     this.trigger('reseteverything');
   }
 
@@ -739,7 +747,9 @@ export default class SegmentLoader extends videojs.EventTarget {
         segmentInfo.startOfSegment < this.sourceUpdater_.timestampOffset())) {
       this.syncController_.reset();
       segmentInfo.timestampOffset = segmentInfo.startOfSegment;
-      this.captionParser_.clearAllCaptions();
+      if (this.captionParser_) {
+        this.captionParser_.clearAllCaptions();
+      }
     }
 
     this.loadSegment_(segmentInfo);
@@ -1215,7 +1225,9 @@ export default class SegmentLoader extends videojs.EventTarget {
       });
       // Reset stored captions since we added parsed
       // captions to a text track at this point
-      this.captionParser_.clearParsedCaptions();
+      if (this.captionParser_) {
+        this.captionParser_.clearParsedCaptions();
+      }
     }
 
     this.handleSegment_();