diff --git a/src/CloudNative.CloudEvents/MimeUtilities.cs b/src/CloudNative.CloudEvents/MimeUtilities.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b5fec1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/CloudNative.CloudEvents/MimeUtilities.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+// Copyright 2021 Cloud Native Foundation.
+// Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
+// See LICENSE file in the project root for full license information.
+
+using System.Net.Http.Headers;
+using System.Net.Mime;
+using System.Text;
+
+namespace CloudNative.CloudEvents
+{
+    // TODO: Consider this name and namespace carefully. It really does need to be public, as all the event formatters are elsewhere.
+    // But it's not ideal...
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Utility and extension methods around MIME.
+    /// </summary>
+    public static class MimeUtilities
+    {
+        // TODO: Should we return null, and force the caller to do the appropriate defaulting?
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Returns an encoding from a content type, defaulting to UTF-8.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="contentType">The content type, or null if no content type is known.</param>
+        /// <returns>An encoding suitable for the charset specified in <paramref name="contentType"/>,
+        /// or UTF-8 if no charset has been specified.</returns>
+        public static Encoding GetEncoding(this ContentType contentType) =>
+            contentType?.CharSet is string charSet ? Encoding.GetEncoding(charSet) : Encoding.UTF8;
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Converts a <see cref="MediaTypeHeaderValue"/> into a <see cref="ContentType"/>.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="headerValue">The header value to convert. May be null.</param>
+        /// <returns>The converted content type, or null if <paramref name="headerValue"/> is null.</returns>
+        public static ContentType ToContentType(this MediaTypeHeaderValue headerValue) =>
+            headerValue is null ? null : new ContentType(headerValue.ToString());
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Converts a <see cref="ContentType"/> into a <see cref="MediaTypeHeaderValue"/>.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="contentType">The content type to convert. May be null.</param>
+        /// <returns>The converted media type header value, or null if <paramref name="contentType"/> is null.</returns>
+        public static MediaTypeHeaderValue ToMediaTypeHeaderValue(this ContentType contentType)
+        {
+            if (contentType is null)
+            {
+                return null;
+            }
+            var header = new MediaTypeHeaderValue(contentType.MediaType);
+            foreach (string parameterName in contentType.Parameters.Keys)
+            {
+                header.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue(parameterName, contentType.Parameters[parameterName].ToString()));
+            }
+            return header;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Creates a <see cref="ContentType"/> from the given value, or returns null
+        /// if the input is null.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="contentType">The content type textual value. May be null.</param>
+        /// <returns>The converted content type, or null if <paramref name="contentType"/> is null.</returns>
+        public static ContentType CreateContentTypeOrNull(string contentType) =>
+            contentType is null ? null : new ContentType(contentType);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/test/CloudNative.CloudEvents.UnitTests/MimeUtilitiesTest.cs b/test/CloudNative.CloudEvents.UnitTests/MimeUtilitiesTest.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1819a89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/CloudNative.CloudEvents.UnitTests/MimeUtilitiesTest.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+// Copyright 2021 Cloud Native Foundation. 
+// Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
+// See LICENSE file in the project root for full license information.
+
+using System.Linq;
+using System.Net.Http.Headers;
+using System.Net.Mime;
+using System.Text;
+using Xunit;
+
+namespace CloudNative.CloudEvents.UnitTests.Http
+{
+    public class MimeUtilitiesTest
+    {
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData("application/json")]
+        [InlineData("application/json; charset=iso-8859-1")]
+        [InlineData("application/json; charset=iso-8859-1; name=some-name")]
+        [InlineData("application/json; charset=iso-8859-1; name=some-name; x=y; a=b")]
+        [InlineData("application/json; charset=iso-8859-1; name=some-name; boundary=xyzzy; x=y")]
+        public void ContentTypeConversions(string text)
+        {
+            var originalContentType = new ContentType(text);
+            var header = originalContentType.ToMediaTypeHeaderValue();
+            AssertEqualParts(text, header.ToString());
+            var convertedContentType = header.ToContentType();
+            AssertEqualParts(originalContentType.ToString(), convertedContentType.ToString());
+
+            // Conversions can end up reordering the parameters. In reality we're only
+            // likely to end up with a media type and charset, but our tests use more parameters.
+            // This just makes them deterministic.
+            void AssertEqualParts(string expected, string actual)
+            {
+                expected = string.Join(";", expected.Split(";").OrderBy(x => x));
+                actual = string.Join(";", actual.Split(";").OrderBy(x => x));
+                Assert.Equal(expected, actual);
+            }
+        }
+
+        [Fact]
+        public void ContentTypeConversions_Null()
+        {
+            Assert.Null(default(ContentType).ToMediaTypeHeaderValue());
+            Assert.Null(default(MediaTypeHeaderValue).ToContentType());
+        }
+
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData("iso-8859-1")]
+        [InlineData("utf-8")]
+        public void ContentTypeGetEncoding(string charSet)
+        {
+            var contentType = new ContentType($"text/plain; charset={charSet}");
+            Encoding encoding = contentType.GetEncoding();
+            Assert.Equal(charSet, encoding.WebName);
+        }
+
+        [Fact]
+        public void ContentTypeGetEncoding_NoContentType()
+        {
+            ContentType contentType = null;
+            Encoding encoding = contentType.GetEncoding();
+            Assert.Equal(Encoding.UTF8, encoding);
+        }
+
+        [Fact]
+        public void ContentTypeGetEncoding_NoCharSet()
+        {
+            ContentType contentType = new ContentType("text/plain");
+            Encoding encoding = contentType.GetEncoding();
+            Assert.Equal(Encoding.UTF8, encoding);
+        }
+
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData(null)]
+        [InlineData("text/plain")]
+        public void CreateContentTypeOrNull_WithContentType(string text)
+        {
+            ContentType ct = MimeUtilities.CreateContentTypeOrNull(text);
+            Assert.Equal(text, ct?.ToString());
+        }
+    }
+}