Eurovision 2010

[threegee]

Thought the German girl was quite cute and not a bad singer. Portugal a poor rip-off of A Weekend in New England.

Only caught the reprise of the UK entry, but it sounded passable.

[threegee]

And the run-away winner is....

Did it again, but perhaps I had the advantage of seeing it on German satellite without the benefit of any running commentary (I could understand).

It's not entirely surprising that it was another UK total disaster. Are we going for the record on being last? In recent years we've completely lost sight of what this is all about. We fail to appreciate changing European taste, and consistently over-produce our entries, sometimes to the point of a complete screw-up. Simon Cowell commercial types shouldn't be let within a mile of this. Even the Irish have now completely lost the plot. A little bit of strategy (from someone definitely not in the commercial music biz) could see us consistently in the top five, and take it a lot of the time. Sure there's politics in this, but not as much as people would have you believe; often why countries vote for their neighbours is simply that they share similar tastes.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Looking at the associated costs involved with putting on this event maybe we 'win' by coming 'last'?

[Monsta®]

Looking at the associated costs involved with putting on this event maybe we 'win' by coming 'last'?

what like the episode of father ted! only if they had sang "my lovely horse" they'd probably have won!

[Malcolm Robinson]

what like the episode of father ted! only if they had sang "my lovely horse" they'd probably have won!

Well simon liked it, or am I getting my popular culture mixed up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdPEA-DslSc&feature=related

[threegee]

Looking at the associated costs involved with putting on this event maybe we 'win' by coming 'last'?

Cost of staging Eurovision, of the same order as Bedlington's new marketplace - give or take the odd million. Cost of 2012 Olympics to the nation £8Bn, and probably more when all the bills are in.

So... for the cost of the London Olympics we could afford to *win* Eurovision every time for the next 4000 years!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Cost of staging Eurovision, of the same order as Bedlington's new marketplace - give or take the odd million. Cost of 2012 Olympics to the nation £8Bn, and probably more when all the bills are in.

So... for the cost of the London Olympics we could afford to *win* Eurovision every time for the next 4000 years!

In 2002 it cost Estonia its whole year's tourism budget about $26M. I think we could have had a gold plated market place for that sort of money even at today's prices!

BTW, your £8B is now up to around £9.3B with £1.25B contingency!

[threegee]

Difficult to see how that Estonia thing could be possible as since 1976 the cost of the final has been shared amongst the participants. The 2005 rules state:

Funding of the Contest Final

1) The cost of financing the production and staging of the Contest Final is shared by the Host Broadcaster Participating Broadcasters. The host broadcaster will cover over 55% of the budget and the remaining amount is shared amongst the other broadcasters taking part in the Contest.

2) In order to fund the contribution mentioned all Participating broadcasters are required to pay their final participation fee to the EBU 30 days before the Final, i.e. by 21 April 2005. Failure to pay in due time may result in a broadcaster being disqualified and/or access to the live satellite transmission being denied.

3) The cost of receiving the live transmissions shall be paid by all Participating broadcasters and by other broadcasters wishing to receive the live transmissions, in accordance with the standard EBU Operations billing practices.

4) Each participating Broadcaster is responsible for the coverage of all expenses related to its entry in the Contest.

Rule 4 looks particularly relevant as it effectively means each entrant has to pay all their own renumeration, travel, accommodation, subsistence, etc.

The cost must also be an awful lot less to broadcasters who can use their own facilities. And this must penalise smaller countries who have neither the facilities nor the home audience size to offset the production against their normal prime-time programming cost. So I'd stick with my £2M (net after normal prime-time cost) as being a reasonable figure for the present day. A large broadcaster like the Beeb *should* be able to bring a decent show in inside this figure, unless they pad the books by amortising things they'd probably be committed to pay for anyway.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Difficult to see how that Estonia thing could be possible as since 1976 the cost of the final has been shared amongst the participants. The 2005 rules state:

Rule 4 looks particularly relevant as it effectively means each entrant has to pay all their own renumeration, travel, accommodation, subsistence, etc.

The cost must also be an awful lot less to broadcasters who can use their own facilities. And this must penalise smaller countries who have neither the facilities nor the home audience size to offset the production against their normal prime-time programming cost. So I'd stick with my £2M (net after normal prime-time cost) as being a reasonable figure for the present day. A large broadcaster like the Beeb *should* be able to bring a decent show in inside this figure, unless they pad the books by amortising things they'd probably be committed to pay for anyway.

Found a more contemporary comparison.....

http://escfans.com/news/read/14351