Eurovision 50 concert

Right... they are trying to select the best song of the past 50 years of Eurovision. Big stage, big venue. Eurovision styleee. They introduce the song... but the person/people who performed it do not appear on stage. Instead they have a group of Pan's People/Legs&Co dancers who perform while a video of the original performance is played on a big screen above the stage.

No wonder it's not on the BBC or RTÉ, it's bloody awful. "Flowless", as the host keeps saying. (Katrina Lescanich is one of the hosts).

EDIT: Sky EPG 822 TVEi

RTE are actually showing it, although in all fairness it's been "downgraded" to RTE2.

Oh wonderful.. missed that on the EPG!

oh come on - it's Eurovision ... what did you expect. It's camp and kitsch and naff - I'm glued to it Would love to have had a Wogan commentary to go with this - pity no BBC/ITV channel is showing it.

Thank GOD!
wasting our money on that! - BBC
can ITV1 go any lower!

I dunno - it's even more gloriously awful than the annual concert! But yes, Wogan would be in his element.

is it actuly been shown on any UK channel?

Why is Ronan Keating singing at this?

I donno, given the figures Eurovision get and given the figures BBC1 gets on a saturday I'm Surprised they aren't showing it. After all, they are paying for it via their EBU fees. ORF in Austria have said they won't be showing Eurovision next year even though they are paying for part of it - an Austrian commercial station now want to show it instead.

ABBA's Waterloo is number one.

I'd have thought it was more BBC THREE (with Paddy?) than ONE - maybe not trendy enough for Mr Murphy.

wow what a shock, ABBA won !!! hee hee.

I am not at all surprised that the BBC didn't show it - and rather glad that they didn't!

The main bulk of the show was absolutely dire. Nearly all of the 14 songs were shown in archive form, with live "Legs and Co" style dance numbers that wouldn't have looked out of place on Seaside Special (and yes I know Legs and Co were ToTP!)

It was only towards the end when they actually featured performances by previous entrants (not just winners) that it livened up a bit - but even then there were some bizarre appearances... It was stretching it a bit to get Ronan Keating on (I know he presented one of the Irish contests but even so...)

If the Beeb had shown it on BBC One it would have tanked. I suspect it was probably too expensive to but for BBC Three.

And to address others points - I think there are two costs involved in Eurovision. The actual broadcast rights for the show are handled by a licence fee AIUI - and if a broadcaster doesn't chose to show the contest (RAI in Italy haven't for a number of years, and it sounds like ORF won't next year) then I think they don't pay the significant amount of money it costs.

I think the costs are based partially on the size of the country - and possibly its wealth - so that small countries and poorer countries can afford to show it. Certainly France, Germany, Spain and the UK are the Big Four funding countries.

I suspect that a degree of a broadcasters EBU membership fees also go towards some of the admin of the contest - so even if it is not shown in a country there may be a degree of indirect funding via this route - albeit much smaller.

I suspect the Beeb didn't provide much funding for last nights' show - though apparently they (or maybe it was Siemens) were involved in the distribution of it - and I heard a rumour that the Beeb were initially going to host the event, but no suitable venue was available?