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Could a potential win for Australia be used by the EBU to change the hosting rules?

Could EBU use a potential win for Australia to change hosting rules? Would you agree or disagree?

  • Yes, and it's a bad idea!

    4 13.3%
  • No, thankfully won't happen!

    19 63.3%
  • Yes, and it's a good idea!

    3 10.0%
  • No, but would be a good idea!

    0 0.0%
  • Don't know / Maybe / No opinion

    4 13.3%

  • Total voters
    30

A-lister

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Money makes the world go round right?

Whether we are fans or not of Australia being pushed into the contest (contrary to what was originally proposed officially by the EBU), there are still legit concerns to address regardless of where we stand.

One major concern that was addressed by both camps, and still is, is of course what will happen if Australia would end up winning this contest. Now as we all know, Australia is almost as far as possible away from geographic Europe and the non-updated European Broadcasting Area (the latter being used as a rule towards other countries by the EBU whether or not countries would be eligible or not to enter). We all know Australia won't be able to host this, maybe in a sort of artificial way in another European/EBU country, but still not actually hosting it with all the costs and preparations that come with hosting.

Now, is there a risk that EBU could use this as a precedent to abolish one of the very traditions of Eurovision and start a bidding war for hosting rights instead? Now this would probably be the scenario if Australia wins, but there is a risk EBU would keep onto such a concept due to financial reasons even for future contests regardless of the winner. Now, not only would this abolish a fine and fair tradition of Eurovision, it would also mean that only rich broadcasters willing to spend money on this, alternatively (often shady) countries taking money from the state budget to convince EBU that they will be "the most fitting host" (with the latter we could end up with "propaganda shows" rather than musical entertainment shows), would be potential hosts while poorer broadcasters/countries won't even be considered.

We have all seen how it works with the World Cups (FIFA), Euro Cups (UEFA) and Olympics (to name the most known ones) and the amount of corruption and politics that are the true reasons for choices of hosts, EBU and Eurovision of course wouldn't be immune to such pressure (it already isn't but at least with the current rule it is not as bad).

Now, what are your guys thoughts on this? Is there a risk for such a precedent to be started? Do you think EBU have the incentives to do such changes and would they actually do it? Do you agree or disagree that it could be a good/bad thing for Eurovision as a brand and concept and/or for the show/contest in general?
 

Realest

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We Televoter must work hard together and prevent this.
But I still think the Tradition will be kept.
In the Case of Australias Victory, UK or Germany will probably host.
 

EscGeek

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I just want eurovision to be in sydney opera house happening at 5 in the morning on sunday :twisted:
xqueenbitch
 

Himan

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I think it will be held at Sydney Opera House then. :D not Germany or England
 

Himan

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We all know for time zone reasons it won't happen xshrug

The world cup and olympics can be hosted there. Don't say we can't host eurovision there cause of time zones. I would also love Eurovision at 13:00 in the midday. I mean start at midnight in Australia. Here it's than 4 o' clock. Not really horrible. especially not on a saturday.
 

Realest

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The world cup and olympics can be hosted there. Don't say we can't host eurovision there cause of time zones. I would also love Eurovision at 13:00 in the midday. I mean start at midnight in Australia. Here it's than 4 o' clock. Not really horrible. especially not on a saturday.

Many People work Saturday 13:00 or have other things to do.
 

Himan

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Many People work Saturday 13:00 or have other things to do.

Yes, this also holds for 9 o'clock.
It just should be held in Australia, cause I want it to :D
 

A-lister

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The world cup and olympics can be hosted there. Don't say we can't host eurovision there cause of time zones. I would also love Eurovision at 13:00 in the midday. I mean start at midnight in Australia. Here it's than 4 o' clock. Not really horrible. especially not on a saturday.

No chance, they wouldn't host it on a worse time slot for market shares reasons just because 1/40+ countries happens to be on the other side of the world, there is no way this would happen. You can say many things about EBU, but they are not this dumb. Eurovision is not Olympics or World Cup, you'd have to create a Worldvision for this to be profitable, but that's another discussion. I mean would they have Australia host the Euro Cup? Nah...
 

popavapeur

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I don't mind Australia hosting with the rule of helding the show at european time. Like ok you can host but be prepared to do your show in the early morning AU time. Actually, fans won't mind that cause they're fans enough to accept that and that's only like 2 weeks in a year, everybody can make that little effort if I may and when I say 2 weeks I'm overreacting cause they can do everything at AU time (red carpet, rehearsals and so on) but the live shows, even jury shows can be held during the day european time.

Second idea : Country that came 2nd is the next host if they want, and if not, take the 3rd and so on
 

A-lister

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I don't mind Australia hosting with the rule of helding the show at european time. Like ok you can host but be prepared to do your show in the early morning AU time. Actually, fans won't mind that cause they're fans enough to accept that and that's only like 2 weeks in a year, everybody can make that little effort if I may and when I say 2 weeks I'm overreacting cause they can do everything at AU time (red carpet, rehearsals and so on) but the live shows, even jury shows can be held during the day european time.

Second idea : Country that came 2nd is the next host if they want, and if not, take the 3rd and so on

The thing is, while the first scenario is possible, it's a whole machinery surrounding ESC and there are so many people that are involved in the show. But hey, if they can find an arena that will accept to host this at odd hours, have all the staff they need, all the security etc. The only problem I see then are ticket sales as most of the public are Europeans and most of them won't fly all the way to Australia, not sure how well it would do commercially tbh.
 

Himan

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The thing is, while the first scenario is possible, it's a whole machinery surrounding ESC and there are so many people that are involved in the show. But hey, if they can find an arena that will accept to host this at odd hours, have all the staff they need, all the security etc. The only problem I see then are ticket sales as most of the public are Europeans and most of them won't fly all the way to Australia, not sure how well it would do commercially tbh.

Australia alone will fill it I think.
 

A-lister

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Australia alone will fill it I think.

I'm not sure if Eurovision is big enough there, I mean from my understanding they don't have THAT great viewing numbers to begin with, so how they will convince people to buy expensive tickets to go to a show in the very early morning and fly cross country and spend tickets on hotels etc xshrug I mean there are a hardcore fan base that would, but is it big enough? Maybe it is...
 

Alaska49

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i don't think australia wins this year, but i THINK we might be close to a hosting rule change regardless. it has already happened in jesc and there is only so much ebu can do to the points system to stop russia from winning and therefore hosting. they might just change the rules to stay comfortably in the sweden/germany/uk circuit forever and never risk one of the Hated Host Countries hosting again without stopping them from winning.
 

A-lister

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i don't think australia wins this year, but i THINK we might be close to a hosting rule change regardless. it has already happened in jesc and there is only so much ebu can do to the points system to stop russia from winning and therefore hosting. they might just change the rules to stay comfortably in the sweden/germany/uk circuit forever and never risk one of the Hated Host Countries hosting again without stopping them from winning.

The same EBU that wanted to punish Ukraine for following their own laws on their own soil due to Russian pressure? I don't think EBU is that ideologically driven tbh, in the end money speak volumes and with a rule change, we would probably see Russia hosting more often ironically.

jESC is not the best comparison, was hosting ever based on the previous winner there? Maybe initially but I can't recall it. Plus if you're concerned about what you refer to as "Hated Host Countries", then jESC is probably a bad example because didn't Belarus host this like at least a couple of times? :lol: No one cares about jESC though, ESC however is real business and a good marketing for a country to host, and a change in hosting rules would completely erase the chances for poorer broadcasters and-or poorer countries (those two aren't always going hand in hand as we all know).
 

Alaska49

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The same EBU that wanted to punish Ukraine for following their own laws on their own soil due to Russian pressure? I don't think EBU is that ideologically driven tbh, in the end money speak volumes and with a rule change, we would probably see Russia hosting more often ironically.
ebu hating russia is not ideologically driven at all. russia was a TERRIBLE host in 2009 and any issue involving russia becomes a huge headache and bad publicity for the contest. they don't have the balls to just ban russian from the contest like they COULD if they followed their own damn rules, but they sure will go to lengths to avoid russia from hosting (and by extension winning).

jESC is not the best comparison, was hosting ever based on the previous winner there? Maybe initially but I can't recall it. Plus if you're concerned about what you refer to as "Hated Host Countries", then jESC is probably a bad example because didn't Belarus host this like at least a couple of times? :lol: No one cares about jESC though, ESC however is real business and a good marketing for a country to host, and a change in hosting rules would completely erase the chances for poorer broadcasters and-or poorer countries (those two aren't always going hand in hand as we all know).

hosting in jesc was decided by the winner for a good five years until they changed it last year... after most entries were out and it was obvious russia was the big favourite. ebu is so transparent and devious. xheart jesc might not be a ratings success but it's where ebu tests a bunch of ideas they have for eurovision, so it's always good to keep an eye on it. and belarus is not a hated host country because they did a good job in jesc 2010. they actually were chosen to host jesc this year!
 

A-lister

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ebu hating russia is not ideologically driven at all. russia was a TERRIBLE host in 2009 and any issue involving russia becomes a huge headache and bad publicity for the contest. they don't have the balls to just ban russian from the contest like they COULD if they followed their own damn rules, but they sure will go to lengths to avoid russia from hosting (and by extension winning).

hosting in jesc was decided by the winner for a good five years until they changed it last year... after most entries were out and it was obvious russia was the big favourite. ebu is so transparent and devious. xheart jesc might not be a ratings success but it's where ebu tests a bunch of ideas they have for eurovision, so it's always good to keep an eye on it. and belarus is not a hated host country because they did a good job in jesc 2010. they actually were chosen to host jesc this year!

My bad, I thought with "hated host country" you referred more to politics rather than organization, I mean there are many that don't want Russia to win for instance due to political and ideological reasons, so I assumed that's what you referred to as well, and Belarus is pretty much mini Russia (even worse in some ways), but ok you mean from organizational point of view? What was so bad with 2009 then?
 

Alaska49

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My bad, I thought with "hated host country" you referred more to politics rather than organization, I mean there are many that don't want Russia to win for instance due to political and ideological reasons, so I assumed that's what you referred to as well, and Belarus is pretty much mini Russia (even worse in some ways), but ok you mean from organizational point of view? What was so bad with 2009 then?
yes, i meant organizational. ebu is not very ideologically driven but they do seem to care greatly when countries display hosting issues. which, of course, sometimes is related to political issues, such as last year, but ebu doesn't really have a horse in the political race itself, it just wants things to not be a headache. which is why their stance last year was "russia might be an asshole but we don't care LET YULIA IN UKRAINE WE DON'T WANT TO SOLVE ANY PROBLEM EVER".

which brings us to 2009. like, just from watching it, it is obvious it was a technical struggle all around (a stage that big was a stupid idea), plus the pitiful choice of semifinal hosts, and that's not even counting the political issues that did make hosting in russia a problem then (pride parade, countries protesting russia) and would still be problems now. they don't want russia hosting eurovision, not because they care so much about us LGBTs, but because us LGBTs would make it a problem for them and "ughhhh we could be doing this in stockholm instead".

(PS: this will never be on-topic again so: dmitry shepelev should have hosted 2009 all by himself petra mede-style for he is russia's most delightful human)
 

Gordon_Shumway

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The day "Australia" wins the Eurovision Song Contest is the same day that I will stop being interested in that competition. So I don't care who is host.
 

tuorem

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I think part of the fun and satisfaction of a country winning the contest is to host it the year after. Regardless of why they would introduce a bidding system, I guess victory would become pointless as there wouldn't be much at stake left imo.

Also, it is not the EBU's place to decide who should or shouldn't host. It's not a GDP or human rights contest, but a musical one. Eurovision has been hosted by quite a lot of countries and it always turned out to be fine in the end, so why would it have to change? Personally, I'm not here to see Germany and Sweden (just examples) host the show by turns.

As for Australia, I don't have any set opinion: they obviously will never host due to financial and logistical reasons. So yeah, either Sweden, Germany or the UK would host in case of victory probably.
 
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