Eurovision 2011 - 10/12/14 May 2011

Yep - that's increasingly common across Europe. It's the norm in Sweden, Denmark and Norway (though they sometimes pre-record and subtitle). Even if the interview is a discussion and only one person is from the UK/US/Australia etc. the whole item is done in English.

Puts us to shame... Can you imagine the reverse taking place?

I think the closest we'll get for the significant future is the interviews by Matt & Tim in Chile earlier this year.

ESC Kaz says that in Germany Prosieben (the channel that shows some stages of the German NF) will be broadcasting the first Eurovision semi-final whilst Das Erste will be showing the second semi and the final. I guess it's only fair that Prosieben get to show some of it given the amount of promotion they gave Eurovision in 2010 and how much they will give it in 2011, but surely this means that Germany will definitely be voting in the second semi? I can't imagine the EBU being happy with a non-member taking the semi with the voting. Also Prosieben broadcasts to Austria and Switzerland with some regional opt-outs. I wonder if they'll be forced to show something else in those two countries.

It's a strange set-up in Germany isn't it? I know the BBC and France Television broadcast the semi-finals and finals on different channels - but they are all still shown by the same broadcaster. The situation in Germany is a bit like sport in the US (and the UK) where different broadcasters hold rights for different days or stages of an event.

Suspect there would be major issues with Pro7 showing a voting semi in Austria and Switzerland unless they did bespoke graphics to show the correct local voting numbers AND blanked different countries in each territory? (Not to mention rights/licensing issues with ORF and SF/TSR/RSI)

This has just popped up on Facebook - a new Eurovision Song Contest 'vignette' which apparently the EBU is trying to encourage participating countries to use into their selection programmes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGSsQkmmrhw&feature=player_embedded

Whether it's a replacement for the Eurovision Symbol proper I'm not sure...

The next widely distributed Eurovision programme AFAIK is the New Year's Day Concert from Vienna. Might have to see what crops up on that...

It's corporate branding for the ESC National Selections only and has no relevance to the EBU symbol in other programmes or the contest finals itself. Voluntary use in 2011, talk of compulsion in 2012.

It's quite nice though don't you think? Lovely nod to the classic EBU slate. It's a little on the "computer generated flat side" for my liking ...

It says under that video "Traditionally, the Eurovision Song Contest is known under different names in some languages" and that they're using this little animation to strengthen recognition of the English name of the contest across Europe. I wonder if this could mean that they'll no longer refer to the contest as "Concours Eurovision de la Chanson" when they speak French during the show itself?

Not fond of this iconing of the Contest really, would prefer each organiser to have the freedom to market and visualise their contest in the way they want. I can understand why it's done from the EBU's point of view but disagree with it.

Very nice - and could be customisable with each countries national flag colours in the bubbles/spheres surrounding the ESC corporate logo. I can see what some posters mean about letting each host nation do there own logo - but apart from the last couple of seconds and the logo line-up, the host broadcaster is pretty much free to sploge up on the screen whatever they want. Can't wait to see what NDR come up with next year...

..hey, and another advantage about that graphic - for a second or two the EBU doilie is makes a fleeting return.
(Noggin will know what I mean - kids, ask your parents - or fire up You Tube)

Incidentally, if anyone's after a nice high quality version of the standard EBU logo, you can find it at http://www.ebu.ch/en/about/index.php - VLC will play the MXF files. I particularly like the pointless repeat animation in the 32 second version.

Someone on DS posted this video last year but I didn't see it first time round. It's the truly disastrous rehearsal attempt by the Russian spokesperson in 1995. Literally every Eurovision voting rule is broken in the space of five minutes! They even manage to try and award themselves points and don't even give themselves the full 12! The EBU must have been furious that anything could possibly go this wrong so close to the live broadcast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzUzFaz2D6U

Mind blowing! And god knows what was happening in France at the time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFxtANvkmoE&feature=related