diff --git a/scrapy/tests/__init__.py b/scrapy/tests/__init__.py
index a102cf994..46c662312 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/__init__.py
@@ -16,4 +16,4 @@ tests_datadir = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'sample
 def get_testdata(*paths):
     """Return test data"""
     path = os.path.join(tests_datadir, *paths)
-    return open(path).read()
+    return open(path, 'rb').read()