diff --git a/package/tvheadend/Config.in b/package/tvheadend/Config.in
index bb71d813d3..f7182a1248 100644
--- a/package/tvheadend/Config.in
+++ b/package/tvheadend/Config.in
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_TVHEADEND
 	# architecture is avr32, which uses gcc 4.2.
 	depends on !BR2_avr32
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_DTV_SCAN_TABLES
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBICONV if !BR2_ENABLE_LOCALE
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_OPENSSL
 	help
 	  Tvheadend is a TV streaming server for Linux supporting DVB-S,