diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb.go b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
index 5d1902c7ac9..15a1fe27046 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb.go
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import (
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
 	"path"
-	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -121,6 +120,9 @@ func (s *Service) createRequest(ctx context.Context, logger log.Logger, dsInfo *
 		return nil, err
 	}
 	u.Path = path.Join(u.Path, "api/query")
+	queryParams := u.Query()
+	queryParams.Set("arrays", "true")
+	u.RawQuery = queryParams.Encode()
 
 	postData, err := json.Marshal(data)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -165,23 +167,25 @@ func (s *Service) parseResponse(logger log.Logger, res *http.Response, myRefID s
 
 	frames := data.Frames{}
 	for _, val := range responseData {
-		timeVector := make([]time.Time, 0, len(val.DataPoints))
-		values := make([]float64, 0, len(val.DataPoints))
-		name := val.Metric
-		tags := val.Tags
-
-		for timeString, value := range val.DataPoints {
-			timestamp, err := strconv.ParseInt(timeString, 10, 64)
-			if err != nil {
-				logger.Info("Failed to unmarshal opentsdb timestamp", "timestamp", timeString)
-				return nil, err
-			}
-			timeVector = append(timeVector, time.Unix(timestamp, 0).UTC())
-			values = append(values, value)
+		labels := data.Labels{}
+		for label, value := range val.Tags {
+			labels[label] = value
 		}
-		frames = append(frames, data.NewFrame(name,
-			data.NewField("time", nil, timeVector),
-			data.NewField("value", tags, values)))
+
+		frame := data.NewFrameOfFieldTypes(val.Metric, len(val.DataPoints), data.FieldTypeTime, data.FieldTypeFloat64)
+		frame.Meta = &data.FrameMeta{Type: data.FrameTypeTimeSeriesMulti, TypeVersion: data.FrameTypeVersion{0, 1}}
+		frame.RefID = myRefID
+		timeField := frame.Fields[0]
+		timeField.Name = data.TimeSeriesTimeFieldName
+		dataField := frame.Fields[1]
+		dataField.Name = "value"
+		dataField.Labels = labels
+
+		points := val.DataPoints
+		for i, point := range points {
+			frame.SetRow(i, time.Unix(int64(point[0]), 0).UTC(), point[1])
+		}
+		frames = append(frames, frame)
 	}
 	result := resp.Responses[myRefID]
 	result.Frames = frames
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb_test.go b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb_test.go
index a48c14188f4..6c5e142c250 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb_test.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/opentsdb_test.go
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ func TestOpenTsdbExecutor(t *testing.T) {
 		[
 			{
 				"metric": "test",
-				"dps": {
-					"1405544146": 50.0
-				},
+				"dps": [
+					[1405544146, 50.0]
+				],
 				"tags" : {
 					"env": "prod",
 					"app": "grafana"
@@ -54,12 +54,17 @@ func TestOpenTsdbExecutor(t *testing.T) {
 		]`
 
 		testFrame := data.NewFrame("test",
-			data.NewField("time", nil, []time.Time{
+			data.NewField("Time", nil, []time.Time{
 				time.Date(2014, 7, 16, 20, 55, 46, 0, time.UTC),
 			}),
 			data.NewField("value", map[string]string{"env": "prod", "app": "grafana"}, []float64{
 				50}),
 		)
+		testFrame.Meta = &data.FrameMeta{
+			Type:        data.FrameTypeTimeSeriesMulti,
+			TypeVersion: data.FrameTypeVersion{0, 1},
+		}
+		testFrame.RefID = "A"
 
 		resp := http.Response{Body: io.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(response))}
 		resp.StatusCode = 200
@@ -80,9 +85,9 @@ func TestOpenTsdbExecutor(t *testing.T) {
 		[
 			{
 				"metric": "test",
-				"dps": {
-					"1405544146": 50.0
-				},
+				"dps": [
+					[1405544146, 50.0]
+				],
 				"tags" : {
 					"env": "prod",
 					"app": "grafana"
@@ -91,12 +96,17 @@ func TestOpenTsdbExecutor(t *testing.T) {
 		]`
 
 		testFrame := data.NewFrame("test",
-			data.NewField("time", nil, []time.Time{
+			data.NewField("Time", nil, []time.Time{
 				time.Date(2014, 7, 16, 20, 55, 46, 0, time.UTC),
 			}),
 			data.NewField("value", map[string]string{"env": "prod", "app": "grafana"}, []float64{
 				50}),
 		)
+		testFrame.Meta = &data.FrameMeta{
+			Type:        data.FrameTypeTimeSeriesMulti,
+			TypeVersion: data.FrameTypeVersion{0, 1},
+		}
+		testFrame.RefID = myRefid
 
 		resp := http.Response{Body: io.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(response))}
 		resp.StatusCode = 200
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/types.go b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/types.go
index 96c43ead02d..171a24e2067 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/types.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/opentsdb/types.go
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ type OpenTsdbQuery struct {
 }
 
 type OpenTsdbResponse struct {
-	Metric     string             `json:"metric"`
-	Tags       map[string]string  `json:"tags"`
-	DataPoints map[string]float64 `json:"dps"`
+	Metric     string            `json:"metric"`
+	Tags       map[string]string `json:"tags"`
+	DataPoints [][]float64       `json:"dps"`
 }