diff --git a/lib/Subtitle/BASE.pm b/lib/Subtitle/BASE.pm
index 7d90342..3e65e50 100644
--- a/lib/Subtitle/BASE.pm
+++ b/lib/Subtitle/BASE.pm
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ sub from_file {
     or return -1;
   my @lines = <$FH>;
   close $FH;
+  return unless @lines; # empty file?
+  $lines[0] =~ s[^\x{EF}\x{BB}\x{BF}][]; # strip BOM
   return $self->parse(\@lines);
 }