diff --git a/update_repos b/update_repos
index 08748188a0bdc6f60f590c966724b871d4588cfa..60e2a6c3e2ab4b679031ed6419eff39314377db4 100755
--- a/update_repos
+++ b/update_repos
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ def read_api_uri(uri, config, page=1):
         print("Trying URI {} with headers {}".format(uri, headers))
 
     req = Request(uri, headers=headers)
-    return urlopen(req).read().decode()
+    return urlopen(req).read().decode('utf-8')
 
 def get_json(uri, config, obj_type=AttributeDict, page=1):
     return json.loads(read_api_uri(uri, config, page), object_hook=obj_type)