SWEDEN 🇸🇪
The EBU has confirmed that Swedish broadcaster TV4, has ended its membership of the union. TV4 joined the European Broadcasting Union in 2004 and had previously been an active participant in a number of Eurovision formats during the 2000s. TV4 had previously participated in both the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and Eurovision Dance Contest. TV4 participated in Junior Eurovision in 2006, 2007 and 2009. TV4 organised a national selection show for the contest and showed an interest in hosting the competition in 2008 and 2009.
EUROVISION 2020 🇳🇱
HD Rent, an Amsterdam-based lighting, audio and events company, posted on its Instagram page that it has won a Eurovision 2020 contest and will work with another Dutch company, LED Screen Solutions, to build a wall 750m2 LED for the scene of next year’s competition, at the Ahoy Arena. The company said it was “honoured to conclude this agreement with Dutch Public Television and look forward to the next steps in the process”. This post was subsequently deleted, apparently not wanting the organizers to provide any details about the stage at this stage.
MONTENEGRO 🇲🇪
The initial shock of the unexpected departure of the state (the second one this year after Hungary), followed the search for the real reasons behind this decision. The reasons behind the official announcement by RTCG, the country’s broadcaster, that the reasons for the departure were purely financial. Poor results in recent years, coupled with unbearable costs for state television, led RTCG to invest. the money earmarked for the Eurovision contest to other costs.
“Participating in the Eurovision song contest costs about 130,000 euros a year. Our representatives have achieved mostly moderate results, which are difficult to meet for the Grand Final. So this year we decided to invest this money in refurbishing the RTCG fleet. The plan is to buy five new cars, which will greatly improve the safety of our crews, who travel more than 1,000 kilometres every day.”
JUNIOR EUROVISION 2019 🇵🇱
The Opening Ceremony of the 2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place on Monday 18th November, hosted by Mateusz Szymkowiak. The ceremony, which will be broadcast onto junioreurovision.tv and TVP Info, will also feature a segment where the host country’s singer, Viki Gabor, will draw her position in the running order, as well as the countries who will perform first and last. The full running order is set to be revealed on November 18th, once the producers have finalised it.
CYPRUS 🇨🇾
CyBC has received a total of 120 song submissions, as the broadcaster looks to find the Cypriot entry for Eurovision 2020. CyBC is continuing to use its internal selection process that has been in place since the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden.