RTVE Director of Entertainment Toñi Prieto revealed an interesting information: EBU is searching among its members (national broadcasters) for potential formats for a new Eurovision Song Contest voting system.

Since 2009 the juries implemented in the Eurovision Song Contest voting with a 50% ratio in their voting value. The system although needed back then (due to the storming high positions of the Eastern countries with the former system) was also heavily criticized.

The criticism emphasized when Sweden won due to the juries in 2015, Ukraine (2016) and The Netherlands (2019) won the trophy without winning neither jury or public voting. But the mainframe of criticism is based on the argument that five experts can not be compared with the massive number of pubic voters.

On oikotimes.com we have mentioned this more than ten times since 2009 and it’s nice to see that EBU actually woke up and listened to us.

But there are also those who argue that the system improved the quality of the songs in the Eurovision Song Contest and alongside the stage presentations and the show production, minimizing also the trash entries some countries submitting.

The voting presentation introduced in 2018 surely boosted the excitement and actually works perfectly when it comes on what defines a thrilling TV show. But let’s keep in mind that huge protests (public and off the record) by delegations such as Russia and San Marino, two countries which openly are against of how the system currently works.

Toñi Prieto said EBU is looking for a proposal which will contain new voting format and the options whether national juries or public voting will be sued and in which ratio.

VOTING HISTORY

1956 – Two-member juries from each country awarded two points to their favourite song.
1957 – 1961: Ten-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs.
1962: Ten-member juries awarded points to their three favourite songs.
1963: Twenty-member juries awarded points to their five favourite songs.
1964 – 1966: Ten-member juries distributed 9 points in three possible ways. If all their votes went to one single song, it got all the 9 points, if they went to two songs, they got 6 and 3 points, and if they went to three or more, the top three got 5, 3 and 1 points. No jury ever gave 9 points to a single song, but Belgium used the 6-3 system in 1965.
1967 – 1969: Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
1970: Ten-member juries distributed 10 points among their favourite songs. A tie-breaking round was available.
1971 – 1973: Two-member juries (one aged over 25 and the other under 25, with at least 10 years between their ages) rated songs between one and five points.
1974: Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
1975 – 1996: All countries had at least eleven jury members (later rising to sixteen) that would award points to their top ten songs.
1997: Twenty countries had jury members and five countries used televoting to decide which songs would get points.
1998 – 2000: All countries should use telephone voting to decide which songs would receive points. In exceptional circumstances (e.g. weak telephone system) where televoting was not possible at all, a jury was used.
2001 – 2002: Every broadcaster was free to make a choice between the full televoting system and the mixed 50–50 system to decide which songs would receive points. In exceptional circumstances where televoting was not possible, only a jury was used.
2003: All countries should use telephone/SMS voting to decide which songs would receive points. In exceptional circumstances where televoting was not possible at all, only a jury was used.
2004 – 2008: All countries used televoting and/or SMS-voting and to decide which songs would receive points. Back-up juries are used by each country (with eight members) in the event of a televoting failure.
2009 – 2012: All countries used televoting and/or SMS-voting (50%) and five-member juries (50%), apart from San Marino which is 100% jury due to country size. This is so-called jury–televote 50/50. In the event of a televoting failure, only a jury is used by that country; in the event of a jury failure, only televoting is used by that country. The two parts of the vote were combined by awarding 12, 10, 8–1 points to the top ten in each discipline, then combining the scores. Where two songs were tied, the televote score took precedence.
2013 – 2015: The same as in 2009–12, except jury and televote are combined differently. The jurors and televoting each rank all the competing entries, rather than just their top ten. The scores are then added together and in the event of a tie, the televote score takes precedence.
2016 – today: The jury and the televote each award an independent set of points. First, the jury points are announced and then the televoting points are calculated together before being added to the jury points, effectively doubling the points which can be awarded in total. With a total of 43 voting countries (maximum number of participating countries), the maximum number of points one can mathematically receive is now 1008 (42 countries giving 12 points in each of jury and popular votes)