Media Centre

The Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast in Australia for more than 30 years. The Australian broadcaster SBS is an Associate Member of the EBU and in 2015, to mark the 60th Eurovision Song Contest, was invited to submit an entry. In 2016 the broadcaster requested to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest again. The Reference Group, the governing body of the Eurovision Song Contest, voted unanimously in favour of Australia’s participation in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. In February 2019, it was announced that Australia has secured participation as a competitor at the Eurovision Song Contest until 2023. It is yet to be decided whether Australia will become a permanent participant in the contest.

All entries to the Eurovision Song Contest are selected by the Participating Broadcasters. These are the Member Broadcasters of the EBU that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Some select their respective entry internally, while others organise public national selections. For more information about how to represent your country, we recommend you contact your national public broadcaster. Read more: How to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest?

The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-profit event, mostly financed by:

• Contributions from the Participating Broadcasters (the so-called participation fee). This fee is different for each country based on the solidarity principle that the strongest shoulders carry the most weight. It is at the sole discretion of each Participating Broadcaster to decide if they wish to make public the financial details of their participation
• A contribution from the Host Broadcaster, which is generally between €10 and €20 million, depending on local circumstances and available resources
• A contribution from the Host City, either financially or 'in kind' (e.g. covering expenses of city branding, side events, security, etc.)
• Commercial revenue from sponsorship agreements, ticket sales, televoting and merchandise, which varies from year to year

On average, over 90% of all available funds are being earmarked for the TV production and event organisation. Approximately 5% of available funds represent the budget for the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest team and its partners. Any remaining funds are being reimbursed to the Participating Broadcasters, for as long local legislation allows such reimbursement. The budget is overlooked and approved by the Reference Group, on behalf of all Participating Broadcasters, on an annual basis.

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual event organised under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the largest union of public service media in the world. The EBU co-produces the Eurovision Song Contest together with its Member Broadcasters, most notably the public broadcaster of the preceding winning country, the Host Broadcaster.

No, the actual voting did not change. However, there was a change in the presentation of the votes. The order in which the televoting results were revealed were determined by the ranking of the jury result. The announcement of the televoting results now starts with the country receiving the fewest points from the juries and ends with the country that received the highest points from the juries. The presenters then announce the total number of televotes received for each song across all participating countries. Read more about voting.

Kosovo cannot take part in the Eurovision Song Contest because their public broadcaster is not a Member of the EBU. The statutes of the EBU say that a Member must come from a country that is a Member of the International Telecommunications Union or is a Member of the Council of Europe. Kosovo is in neither. The EBU helped set up Kosovo’s public service broadcaster RTK in 1999 and it continues to work closely with RTK to protect public service media in Kosovo.

The Eurovision Song Contest physical archive is safely stored at the EBU's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. In principle, the archive is not open to the public. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis and are at the EBU's sole discretion.