diff --git a/sphinxcontrib/openapi/utils.py b/sphinxcontrib/openapi/utils.py
index 29cf488..daeedc2 100644
--- a/sphinxcontrib/openapi/utils.py
+++ b/sphinxcontrib/openapi/utils.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def resolve_remote(self, uri):
 
         if scheme in [u"http", u"https"] and self._requests:
             response = self._requests.get(uri)
-            result = yaml.safe_load(response)
+            result = yaml.safe_load(response.content)
         else:
             # Otherwise, pass off to urllib and assume utf-8
             with closing(urlopen(uri)) as url:
diff --git a/tests/test_openapi.py b/tests/test_openapi.py
index 103e00d..551f6a6 100644
--- a/tests/test_openapi.py
+++ b/tests/test_openapi.py
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@
     :copyright: (c) 2016, Ihor Kalnytskyi.
     :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
 """
-
+import json
 import os
 import textwrap
 import collections
+from unittest import mock
 
 import py
 import pytest
@@ -1755,6 +1756,44 @@ def test_relative_ref_resolving_on_fs(self):
             },
         }
 
+    @mock.patch('requests.get')
+    def test_relative_ref_resolving_remote(self, mock_get):
+        baseuri = os.path.abspath(__file__)
+        with open(
+                os.path.join(os.path.dirname(baseuri), 'testdata', 'foo.json'),
+                'r',
+                encoding='utf-8'
+        ) as file:
+            json_content = json.loads(file.read())
+        with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(baseuri), 'testdata', 'foo.yaml'), 'rb') as file:
+            yaml_content = file.read()
+
+        def get_side_effect(path):
+            nonlocal json_content
+            if path.endswith('.json'):
+                return mock.Mock(json=mock.Mock(return_value=json_content))
+            return mock.Mock(content=yaml_content, read=mock.Mock(side_effect=Exception))
+        mock_get.side_effect = get_side_effect
+
+        data = {
+            'bar': {
+                '$ref': 'testdata/foo.json#/foo/b',
+            },
+            # check also JSON to YAML references:
+            'baz': {
+                '$ref': 'testdata/foo.yaml#/foo',
+            }
+        }
+        assert utils._resolve_refs('https://some/remote/file', data) == {
+            'bar': {
+                'c': True,
+            },
+            'baz': {
+                'a': 17,
+                'b': 13,
+            },
+        }
+
     def test_noproperties(self):
         renderer = renderers.HttpdomainOldRenderer(None, {'examples': True})
         text = '\n'.join(renderer.render_restructuredtext_markup({