diff --git a/ox/web/youtube.py b/ox/web/youtube.py
index 2e65c0f..6a0ac3f 100644
--- a/ox/web/youtube.py
+++ b/ox/web/youtube.py
@@ -46,14 +46,14 @@ def video_url(youtubeId, format='mp4', timeout=cache_timeout):
 
 def get_video_info(id):
     eurl = get_url(id)
-    data = read_url(eurl)
+    data = read_url(eurl).decode('utf-8')
     t = re.compile('\W[\'"]?t[\'"]?: ?[\'"](.+?)[\'"]').findall(data)
     if t:
         t = t[0]
     else:
         raise IOError
     url = "http://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?&video_id=%s&el=$el&ps=default&eurl=%s&hl=en_US&t=%s" % (id, quote(eurl), quote(t))
-    data = read_url(url)
+    data = read_url(url).decode('utf-8')
     info = {}
     for part in data.split('&'):
         key, value = part.split('=')