News - Exclusive: A new voting procedure for Eurovision? | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia 

Easily Nor [12447]

Tue 2 Sep 2008 08:00:45

If that's true, Stephen, I think it's the best solution. But I think in a way or other, the remaining countries should be able to vote. Perhaps as a single jury.

Stephen Romanetz [44439]

Mon 1 Sep 2008 18:38:23

michael baker [45128]
Sun 31 Aug 2008 13:29:00

basically, the plan is going to be ( I have just heard from a very good source) that it will be a 50/50 split between televoting and jury and also only the countries in the final will be able to vote. At last, a fair system!

This sounds fair, but what is the "reliable source"?

nigel mc macerson [39892]

Sun 31 Aug 2008 13:57:00

@owen

could yo put in this too?
D) say the uk gave 30 points (otherwords 30% of their votes) to greece, then uk would be awarded for giving points to a non neighbour country and therefore able to give 30points to greece!
wereas say the uk gave 10 points to ireland they would be deprivliged and only able to give half that so ireland would only get 5 points from the uk?!!?
or even a better idea would be that thoose 10 points would be taken from the uks total?! (and i know that might mean -10 points but it would be a lesson)

Arabic scents [25108]

Sun 31 Aug 2008 09:39:03

Yea yeah change it........................push down the Armenian and Turkish diaspora, the Yugoslav mafia and the USSR ghosts!!!!!

Marky Mark [23264]

Sat 30 Aug 2008 13:37:21

For the EBU to consider changes to the voting procedure then it has to be either one of the BIG4 that has declared a possible withdrawal from the contest or I would guess there has to be a few countries outside of the BIG4 that have mentioned withdrawing.

What has prompted this could also be down to the way the countries finish under the back up jury system. I have heard that this year the UK faired a lot better under the jury votes and last year Germany finished in the juries top 10. Obvioulsy under televoting both countries faired much worse. This may also apply to numerous other countries that do not benefit from neighbourly or dispora voting and so lose out when it comes to televoting.

As for which countries have threatened to withdraw, well, if it is a BIG4 country then I would say either France or Germany. Outside of the BIG4 then my money is on Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland & Ireland.

The problem is how do you get a voting system that appears fair to all participating countries? Televoting benefits some countries and jury voting benefits others, so may be 50/50 is the best way to go?

Stockholm calling [44413]

Fri 29 Aug 2008 18:16:45

Jonny
Yeah, of course

Owen Williams [36362]

Fri 29 Aug 2008 17:39:30

Finn

Thanx for your kind words about my ideas I feel a bit freaked out that no one has attacked me for what I've said so far! Its really something for the books lol

I would agree with you that 2007 was better (song wise) than this year, in fact it was probably better in a lot of other ways too! I don't think the west COMPLETELY cocked up last year Spain had a fairly good song, but I do agree that all the good Western songs were probably in the final already, still they didn't do well in that final, some countries definitely deserved higher last year but it was much less of a cock up than this year (results wise). I do think that a lot of good songs DID pass to the final this year but there are still countries like the Netherlands that deserved a LOT higher!

On the topic of who might be threatening to pull out, I think it is a big four country and if not a very long running country such as Belgium or the Netherlands but I'm not convinced its the BBC,I think give it another few years like this and it WOULD be the BBC, but they simply get too big viewing figuers for ESC, also they are already hyping up ESC at least to the fans with the whole, who is going to replace Wogan question. I also think they know they haven't sent the best song they could for the last three or four years and that they have PARTIALLY deserved the lower points (even if we haven't deserved such low points... especially compared to countries such as Latvia this year, Ukraine in 2007 and Lithuania in 2006).
I think it could be the Netherlands or France. Neither did particularly well this year (even though France did do much better than was expected and than they have recently) and they have obviously got the EBU at least jogging scared so they must either be powerful or traditional. Also in the case of France espeically the viewing figuers hav dropped dramatically recently! I think this year it was bearly 1 million French people watching! Now for supposedly " the most watched non sporting event in the world" for a country the size of France to have that low viewing figures would mean that the broadcaster would be very unhappy!

Finn P [18662]

Fri 29 Aug 2008 15:43:59

@Owen

I think your last point is a very interesting one and I do believe it would solve a lot of problems actually!

I know sometime ago there was a Eurovision-related show in Holland that used a similar format. That is, they gave five jury members 8,10 and 12 or something but the public televote had about 60 points to give, no set amounts just given in proportion to the people that had voted.

I really like your idea. The unfortunate part is you're probably to astute and perceptive to ever make it to EBU director P.

Following the result of the 2007 semi final, when countries in Western Europe were seen to have missed out on a spot in the final because all qualifiers came from Central and Eastern Europe, changes were brought forward and a two semi-final system was introduced for the 2008 competition. Earlier this year in Belgrade, the new system was used for the first time. It was widely held as a success, with a fair balance of countries from across Europe taking their places in the final, and wide agreement that the best songs qualified from each semi final.

Has the world gone mad here?

The reason, my dear esctoday people, that in 2007 only Eastern and central countries qualified was because not one but EVERY western song was bland, bad or unoriginal in the extreme, possibly only excepting Andorra, and Ireland, Finland and Germany who were already in the final. Eastern Europe had original songs of extremely high quality - I name you a Georgia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria or even Albania that didnt even qualify!
That is why I believe very firmly Helsinki was by far the best contest up to now (nothing to do with my name btw, I am NOT Finnish or have any connection to the country ).

But 'widely agreed the best countries qualified' this year?! Not me it isn't!
I regard it as an insult to the effort Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, San Marino and many others who scored under expectations (Finland, Croatia, Portugal) put into their songs that esctoday would believe that, say, the Swedish, Greek or Armenian song,which in the words of Teräsbetoni 'someone could have written in their lunch breaks', was better quality.

This year, with Russia winning, I think is the first year that people are really getting fed up.

As for this mystery broadcaster that has threathened to pull out, I have a few very big suspicions.
- Germany has been scoring consistently low with high-quality songs (though I didnt like them this year but last year they had everything)
- Switzerland could follow Austria, especially since it's quite a eurosceptic country
- Spain, same low scores, already cancelled their EBU contribution mid-season
But I think it's the BBC. Theyve scored lower than low this year and every year, Terry is quitting, the people are getting fed up. I could believe they would threathen the EBU over the voting system and without the BBC Eurovision would go bankrupt.

Stockholm calling [44413]

Fri 29 Aug 2008 12:29:32

Jonny
At the time people seemed to accept the jury's choice. "Hero" was after all the televoters' second favourite. Today, however, most people say that "Empty room" would have been a better choice.

Muireanne Bulens [45898]

Fri 29 Aug 2008 08:00:09

Now we're talking sense... hopefully it won't stay with talking off course.

Adam from the United Kingdom [36994]

Thu 28 Aug 2008 23:32:44

There should be 2 semi-finals 1 for West European countries and 1 for Eastern European countries with the Big-4 and Russia voting in both semi-finals and the countries from the semi-finals should vote in the semi-final they are not participating in. In the the final only the countries that are in the final should vote(Big-4, Russia, 10 qualifiers from SF1 and 10 qualifiers from SF2) and there should also be 9 and 11 points as that will allow countries like United Kingdom, France and Ireland to get lower points (1's, 2's and 3's)from other countries so that they may be able to get slightly above last place. Also Big-4 countries should also get 12 points to start with so they are immune from nul points.

gary dunn [28993]

Thu 28 Aug 2008 23:18:00

owen your comment was too long for me to read, i lost interest haha. but i like how your thinking for the first 2 bits. think for a jury though it shouold be made up of fans. we know eurovision better than most celebrities.

Mina Carnation [51405]

Thu 28 Aug 2008 22:43:22

it seems if a Western European country puts in a weird song (Ireland) they're considered making a farce of the contest, but if an Eastern European country does the same thing (Bosnia & Herz.) they are considered making a BOLD choice

That's not true. I found both songs awful. I don't know who you're talking about the considered one song a farce and the other one bold.

london calling [25194]

Thu 28 Aug 2008 22:31:29

I don't see how 1 vote per phone will be the solution. Russian-speakers make up a huge percentage of the televoters in the 3 Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, etc so that bias would remain as even with 1 vote each they'll outnumber the rest. Also, more importantly, the EBU will not consider for a minute reducing the money it makes from televoting...