diff --git a/visidata/path.py b/visidata/path.py
index ea995cf15..fd32c00eb 100644
--- a/visidata/path.py
+++ b/visidata/path.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 from visidata import vd
 from visidata import VisiData, Progress
 
-vd.option('encoding', 'utf-8', 'encoding passed to codecs.open when opening a file', replay=True)
+vd.option('encoding', 'utf-8-sig', 'encoding passed to codecs.open when reading a file', replay=True)
 vd.option('encoding_errors', 'surrogateescape', 'encoding_errors passed to codecs.open', replay=True)
 
 @VisiData.api