diff --git a/sickbeard/providers/torrentbytes.py b/sickbeard/providers/torrentbytes.py
index 2680da69bd6d548364f4cb1e072dadba6c124bb7..249562a8fe141565dcfe64f771da89f4a8dfdefb 100644
--- a/sickbeard/providers/torrentbytes.py
+++ b/sickbeard/providers/torrentbytes.py
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ class TorrentBytesProvider(generic.TorrentProvider):
                 if mode != 'RSS':
                     logger.log(u"Search string: %s " % search_string, logger.DEBUG)
 
-                searchURL = self.urls['search'] % (urllib.quote(search_string), self.categories)
+                searchURL = self.urls['search'] % (urllib.quote(search_string.encode('utf-8')), self.categories)
                 logger.log(u"Search URL: %s" %  searchURL, logger.DEBUG) 
 
                 data = self.getURL(searchURL)