diff --git a/awx/api/views.py b/awx/api/views.py
index 2d1044fb8f..154fb84e88 100644
--- a/awx/api/views.py
+++ b/awx/api/views.py
@@ -4764,7 +4764,6 @@ class UnifiedJobStdout(RetrieveAPIView):
         try:
             target_format = request.accepted_renderer.format
             if target_format in ('html', 'api', 'json'):
-                content_format = request.query_params.get('content_format', 'html')
                 content_encoding = request.query_params.get('content_encoding', None)
                 start_line = request.query_params.get('start_line', 0)
                 end_line = request.query_params.get('end_line', None)
@@ -4790,10 +4789,10 @@ class UnifiedJobStdout(RetrieveAPIView):
                 if target_format == 'api':
                     return Response(mark_safe(data))
                 if target_format == 'json':
-                    if content_encoding == 'base64' and content_format == 'ansi':
-                        return Response({'range': {'start': start, 'end': end, 'absolute_end': absolute_end}, 'content': b64encode(content.encode('utf-8'))})
-                    elif content_format == 'html':
-                        return Response({'range': {'start': start, 'end': end, 'absolute_end': absolute_end}, 'content': body})
+                    content = content.encode('utf-8')
+                    if content_encoding == 'base64':
+                        content = b64encode(content)
+                    return Response({'range': {'start': start, 'end': end, 'absolute_end': absolute_end}, 'content': content})
                 return Response(data)
             elif target_format == 'txt':
                 return Response(unified_job.result_stdout)
diff --git a/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_unified_jobs_stdout.py b/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_unified_jobs_stdout.py
index f51920fd41..f399dca389 100644
--- a/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_unified_jobs_stdout.py
+++ b/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_unified_jobs_stdout.py
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ def test_unicode_with_base64_ansi(sqlite_copy_expert, get, admin):
     url = reverse(
         'api:job_stdout',
         kwargs={'pk': job.pk}
-    ) + '?format=json&content_encoding=base64&content_format=ansi'
+    ) + '?format=json&content_encoding=base64'
 
     response = get(url, user=admin, expect=200)
     content = base64.b64decode(json.loads(response.content)['content'])