Martin Österdahl: Eurovision Song Contest under financial pressure!

Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl discussed the financial challenges facing the Eurovision Song Contest.

In an interview with Dagens Industri, Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl spoke about the challenges facing the Eurovision Song Contest. In recent years the costs surrounding the competition have increased significantly due to inflation, the exit of Russia and Belarus from the competition and other factors.

Mr Österdahl explains:

“Without commercial revenue, I think it’ll be tough for the Eurovision Song Contest to survive in the future.”

There are currently six well-known companies that have multi-year sponsorship deals with the Eurovision Song Contest, helping to fund the event. Traditionally, the competition has been funded mainly by the participating broadcasters:

“The contest was financed every year by the participation fee, but the production has grown so much and become so much more expensive that today, the fee’s a very small part of the required budget”

With the challenges of balancing public media and commercial interests, there is a delicate balancing act to ensure that the Eurovision Song Contest maintains its independence.

Mr Österdahl explains:

“We’re incredibly strict regarding that the commercial interests never get to control the content of the broadcasts – that’s one of the things I’m in charge of. But when you’re working with public service, it’s equally important to use your money in the best way. If you have the crown jewels like the Eurovision or Melodifestivalen, it’s very easy to critique it if you are wasting public service money and not using the commercial potential that it comes with.”

The Executive Supervisors’ interview comes months after the Irish head of delegation revealed to Éirevision that the competition is under financial pressure.

Michael Kealy said the increase in entry fees was a result of the EBU declaring that the competition was not currently “financially viable”. RTÉ currently spends a third of its competition budget on the fee required to be paid to the European Broadcasting Union. In 2023 this cost was €105,099, up from €92,588 for the 2022 tender.

Ahead of the 2023 competition in Liverpool, Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia pulled out of the competition citing the cost of participating at a time of economic hardship across the continent.

Romania also chose to withdraw from the 2024 competition due to financial difficulties affecting the broadcaster.

At another point in the interview, Martin Österdahl also spoke about the phenomena of hatred in the competition.

“We will fight back very hard” (on the phenomena of hate)”

The head of the competition has detailed the security situation ahead of next week’s competition, why Israel was allowed to enter the competition and his thoughts on the social media hate directed at this year’s artists.

First, Österdahl comments on the difficult conditions under which Eurovision is being held in 2024:

“You shouldn’t swear but… we’ve been a little unlucky this year.”

With tensions rising across Europe, there are concerns that Eurovision could become a target for protesters or even criminals. Österdahl, who has been the Contest’s Executive Supervisor since 2020, believes that while the contest may be “awkward” this year, its security can handle it:

“Regarding the security circumstances, we’ve been at the absolute peak of security for many years, so the audience and crew that work on this for eight-nine weeks can be safe. Will there be demonstrations? Very probable. Will it feel a little uncomfortable and could it get violent? Possible. Will the police be able to handle it? Yes, I think so.”

Österdahl also touches on the social media hate surrounding the contest this year. Many have protested Israel’s inclusion in this year’s contest, with some directing hate at both the contest organizers and the artists themselves. Österdahl feels that he and his team have gone beyond what they can tolerate now:

“There’s a lot of hate in the media and on social media, against the participants and those that work with this. Hate doesn’t belong in the Eurovision Song Contest and we will fight back pretty hard against that. We’re past what we can tolerate now – artists shouldn’t feel afraid of expressing their artform because there’s a conflict somewhere else in the world that they have nothing to do with. It’s absolutely absurd.”

When asked about Israel’s participation, Österdahl reiterated that Eurovision was a contest for broadcasters, not governments. And, when asked why Russia had been banned from the competition in 2022 and not Israel, Österdahl defended Israel’s broadcaster KAN, calling them the “direct opposite” of the Israeli state:

“The disinformation that was spread about the invasion of Ukraine was what was too much for us in the end. But while the Russian broadcasters are Putin’s and the Kremlin’s extended arm, the Israeli broadcaster KAN is the direct opposite. Netanyahu has been trying to shut it down. And it’s the independent public service broadcasters that we have to support.”

In addition, he said another broadcaster, Azerbaijan’s AZTV, is one whose independence is more questionable. While AZTV is not Azerbaijan’s Eurovision broadcaster – that’s İctimai Television – the Executive Overseer says they had “reasons to highlight things about Azerbaijan” in general:

“We’ve had reasons to point things out regarding Azerbaijan. It’s not exactly a democracy and sometimes you can question AZTV’s independence. But they’ve not yet crossed the line like Russia did.”

In the end, Österdahl admits to being “frustrated” with the political discussions surrounding Eurovision, saying that the contest is the only thing they can control:

“I spend a lot of time explaining to the delegations that once you step on the stage you have to take that coat off and focus on what brings us together. The only thing we can control are those three minutes on stage, and that’s why I sometimes get frustrated when lots of people want to make politics out of the Eurovision Song Contest.”

Source: Dagens Industri

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