And just to add that it appears the IBA were the only members of the EBU in Israel, and they withdrew from membership, showing the contest as a last hurrah.
So that would, at least for the time being, appear to be an end to Israel's involvement in the Song Contest.
The saddest moment of the night for me was the spokesperson for Israel (Ofer Nachshon, who has given the results for almost a decade) paid tribute to the IBA, the state broadcaster that is being closed down by the government. A member of the EBU since 1957, they hosted the contest twice, and won three times in all. Last nights Eurovision was Channel 1's last ever broadcast I believe, a skeleton staff staying on to put it out. Ofer also insinuated that it would be the last time Israel would compete.
Yes, there are two replacements, one for general programming: Inc or 'Kan' and another for news. The problem is that EBU membership requires that the broadcaster to do news and current affairs programming so Kan can't be a member
I suppose it wouldn't prevent another Israeli broadcaster becoming an EBU member if any are eligible
Presumably the replacements will be grouped together under some form of umbrella which would get EBU membership?
Probably eventually, though I imagine they've more pressing matters on their hands at the moment. Though I suppose it depends how much content the non-news broadcaster would want from the EBU. There's more to it than the song contest of course, but it's mostly news
Potentially I suppose so yes. "United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting" as a group (comprising ITV regional franchisees, Channel 4 and S4C) is a full member. ITV has shown the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (though not for some years) and S4C took part in the latter years of Jeux Sans Frontières. They're also planning to show the inaugural Eurovision Choir of the Year in July.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Choir_of_the_Year_2017
I have to say last night's contest was good entertainment as ever. The hosts though we're probably the worst I've seen in many years. The UK brought a good song to the table with excellent staging and a good song position and yet we come 15th, below terrible countries like Croatia?
I've come to the conclusion now that we will never win this. The winning song was sweet and very different. I don't think it was the best song of the night though, it's just that it was so different it stuck out against everything else. Good luck to Portugal though, they've waited long enough.
Maybe if the UK did an Italy and left for a few years then came back it'd make a difference.
That's our problem though - the winning song was different, ours wasn't. We don't seem to have the confidence to come up with something bold and imaginative. It's understandable how our result was a disappointment because, viewed on its own, our performance was really good. Amongst everything else though, it doesn't do enough to stand out like many others did.