diff --git a/src/main/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/io/MediaModuleParser.java b/src/main/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/io/MediaModuleParser.java
index 604cdc4..bb8a774 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/io/MediaModuleParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/io/MediaModuleParser.java
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import com.rometools.utils.Integers;
+import com.rometools.utils.Longs;
 import com.rometools.utils.Strings;
 import com.sun.syndication.feed.module.Module;
 import com.sun.syndication.io.ModuleParser;
@@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ public class MediaModuleParser implements ModuleParser {
                     }
                     try {
                         if (content.getAttributeValue("duration") != null) {
-                            mc.setDuration(Long.valueOf(content.getAttributeValue("duration")));
+                            mc.setDuration(Longs.parseDecimal(content.getAttributeValue("duration")));
                         }
                     } catch (final Exception ex) {
                         LOG.warn("Exception parsing content tag.", ex);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/MediaModuleTest.java b/src/test/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/MediaModuleTest.java
index 796186c..3927c6e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/MediaModuleTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/MediaModuleTest.java
@@ -109,6 +109,24 @@ public class MediaModuleTest extends AbstractTestCase {
 
     }
 
+    /**
+     * tests parsing a decimal duration (https://github.com/rometools/rome-modules/issues/8).
+     *
+     * @throws IOException if file not found or not accessible
+     * @throws FeedException when the feed can't be parsed
+     *
+     */
+    public void testParseDecimalDuration() throws FeedException, IOException {
+
+        final SyndFeed feed = getSyndFeed("org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/issue-08.xml");
+        final SyndEntry entry = feed.getEntries().get(0);
+        final MediaEntryModule module = (MediaEntryModule) entry.getModule(MediaEntryModule.URI);
+        final Thumbnail[] thumbnails = module.getMetadata().getThumbnail();
+
+        assertThat(thumbnails, is(notNullValue()));
+
+    }
+
     /**
      * tests parsing rating without scheme (https://github.com/rometools/rome-modules/issues/12).
      *
diff --git a/src/test/resources/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/issue-08.xml b/src/test/resources/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/issue-08.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..846afea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/resources/org/rometools/feed/module/mediarss/issue-08.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
+    <channel>
+        <item>
+            <media:content url="http://someurl/somevideo.wmv" fileSize="21592869" bitrate="496024"
+                duration="174.42" type="video/x-ms-wmv" isDefault="false" />
+        </item>
+    </channel>
+</rss>
\ No newline at end of file