diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ecb5c64..dd56cf8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 class eo_sdist(sdist):
 
     def run(self):
-        print "creating VERSION file"
+        print("creating VERSION file")
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
         version = get_version()
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class eo_sdist(sdist):
         version_file.write(version)
         version_file.close()
         sdist.run(self)
-        print "removing VERSION file"
+        print("removing VERSION file")
         if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
             os.remove('VERSION')
 
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ def get_version():
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
         result = p.communicate()[0]
         if p.returncode == 0:
-            return result.split()[0][1:].replace('-', '.')
+            return result.decode('ascii').split()[0][1:].replace('-', '.')
         else:
             return '0.0.0-%s' % len(
                     subprocess.check_output(