Slovakia: RTVS General Director on the prospects for the country’s return!

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The Director General of Slovak Public Television Luboš Machaj discussed the country’s chances of returning to the Eurovision contest, in an interview he gave to Aktuality.sk.

Slovakia took part in the contest for the first time in 1994 and has since participated seven times, with its best result being  Marcel Palonder’s 18th place in 1996. From 1998 to 2008 the country was absent from the contest, while in 2009 they returned and participated until 2012, without being able to qualify for the final. Its subsequent departure was not due to poor results, but to the inability of public television to meet the cost of participation. 

Statements by the Director General of RTVS

L. Machaj clarified that the financial requirements of a Eurovision participation do not allow the country to return to the 2024 competition.

We are indeed one of the few countries that do not broadcast Eurovision. The requirements, both in the economic and in the preparation field, are quite high. If all the problems are solved, in 2024 we will declare that in one year we will return to the competition. We have also received relatively good offers for this return. The amount required is not a big problem, but it is not insignificant.

He then referred to the method that RTVS would like to follow for the selection of the representative, if of course the country returns.

We must also decide by what method our entry will be chosen. In 2012 we were represented by Miro Šmajda, whose proposal, from the beginning, provided that the cost of participation would be covered by the sponsors behind him. Eurovision is a pan-European affair and Slovakia should also be represented in it.

At Eurovision 2024 Luxembourg has already confirmed its return, among others, while there are chances that Monaco will also return. Could Slovakia be the next country to return to the contest?

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Sources:  Aktuality.sk, eurovoix 

Slovakia: RTVS plans to return in the near future!

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With 9 months still to go for the next edition of Eurovision Song Contest, many countries confirm day by day their participation in Eurovision 2024. Meanwhile, there are also countries confirming that they do not plan a return such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia, claiming the lack of recourses.

Two months ago, Slovakia announced that there are no plans to return, although the latest news indicate that the country can possibly return in the near future.

According to the PR and Communication Director of RTVS, Zuzana Vicelova, the National Broadcaster of Slovakia is thinking of returning to Eurovision in 2025.

This decision seems to be coming from the General Director of RTVS, Ľuboš Macha, who took the reins of the Slovakian broadcaster in July 2022.

A new way of funding for RTVS

The impediment to a Slovakian participation for the past decade has been the lack of funding and recourses that RTVS was facing. Although, an alteration in legislation regarding the funding of RTVS from public sources, the elimination of TV license fees and a generous government subsidy will sure relieve the Slovakian Television. As a result, RTVS will see an increase of 46 million euros in its budget, that will definitely not be able to cover all its needs but an important boost will be given.

Slovakia last participated in Eurovision back in 2012 with “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and since the introduction of the Semi-Finals has never managed to qualify to the Grand Final.

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Source: eurofestivales

Slovakia: Absent from Eurovision 2024!

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Slovakia will not take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2o24!

The head of the Department of International Relations of the national broadcaster, RTVS, Slavomira Kubickova confirmed that Slovakia will continue its absence not only from the “adult” Eurovision but also from the Junior Eurovision.

“RTVS is not considering the participation at the Eurovision or junior Eurovision in the coming future.”

Despite the renewal of the General Director of RTVS, Slovakia will remain outside the European competition.

The former General Director of RTVS was known for being against the participation of Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest, considering the Contest as the worst thing that has ever happened to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

In summer 2022, Mr. Ľuboš Macha was appointed as the new General Director of RTVS, however he will (at least for now)  continue the path of his predecessor, so Slovakia’s absence from the competition goes on.

RTVS claims financial reasons for their absence.

RTVS admitted that the reasons for not participating in the Eurovision Song Contest are mainly financial.

The organization acknowledges that it is impossible to cover the costs of the competition, as the participation of the country is associated with high financial costs for which RTVS currently has no resources.

The RTVS station has been mired in a financial crisis for years. However, the Slovak government intends to amend the funding of the public broadcaster in order to increase the funding of the public broadcaster by 46 million euros by 2024. If these changes are approved, RTVS will have a budget of around 160 million for the next year.

The country’s last participation was in 2012 where the central European country was represented by Max Jason Mai with the song “Don’t Close Your Eyes” taking the 18th and last place in the Second Semi-Final with 22 points.

Source: Eurofestivales

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Slovakia: RTVS confirms the reason for the country’s absence from Eurovision!

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Slovakia’s National Broadcaster, RTVS, has confirmed the reason behind the country’s repeated absence from Eurovision Song Contest.

RTVS is the responsible broadcaster for the country’s participation in the contest, based on the latest information, the channel has confirmed the main reason for its absence from the contest, which is financial.

The head of the public relations department of RTVS, Filip Púchovský, reported that:

“Eurovision is a singing competition of public broadcasters. In the past, RTVS was the official broadcaster of the event and at the same time the organizer of the national competition round. RTVS carefully approaches the creation of the broadcasting structure of its television and radio circuits and in the past period decided not to include this international competition in its broadcasting based on the evaluation of several input factors, primarily the funds spent and viewership… The participation of Slovak artists is also associated with high financial costs, for which RTVS does not have the resources.”

Slovak musician and radio producer Juraj Čurný commented that:

“As television is underfunded, if RTVS were to return to Eurovision the participant would likely need to fund themselves as opposed to relying on the broadcaster… If Slovakia ever return to Eurovision, it would provide an “interesting opportunity to promote Slovakia within the European context”.

The above happened to the last representative of the country in 2012, when Max Jason Mai represented the country in the competition, in Baku, with Don’t Close Your Eyes”. You can watch the participation down bellow:

Slovakia has participated in the competition in total seven times, with the first time participated being in 1993. However, the country has not yet confirmed whether or not it will participate in the contest in 2024.

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Source: aktuality.sk

 

Slovakia: Rádio_FM will broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest 2023!

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RTVS confirmed that Rádio_FM will broadcast on radio the Grand Final of Eurovision 2023. Rádio_FM is the 4th radio broadcasting channel of the Slovakian national broadcaster and is mostly aimed at younger audiences with a greater interest in alternative music and broadcasting live festivals. Also, Rádio_FM has been broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest for years.

So far, the non-participating in Eurovision 2023 countries that have confirmed the broadcast of this year’s contest are the following:

  • Chile – Canal 13
  • North Macedonia – MRT
  • United States – Peacock

More details on the broadcast will be released soon. In fact, RTVS usually invites audience to its radio studios in order to watch the contest along with the commentary team.

Slovakia is absent from the Eurovision Song Contest for the past 10 years with their last entry being in 2012 with Max Jason Mai and Don’t Close Your Eyes, which failed to qualify to the Grand Final.

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Source: eurovoix.com

INFE Poll 2023: The results from Slovakia!

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For the seventh consecutive year, the second fan network of the Eurovision Song Contest, the INFE Network, in collaboration with the website EscToday, is conducting the INFE Poll.

Network members in the 21 local fan clubs have already voted for their favorite songs from Eurovision 2023 and via ESCToday, they are announcing their scores.

Here are the results of INFE Slovakia:

  1. Malta – 1 point
  2. Denmark – 2 points
  3. Albania – 3 points
  4. Austria – 4 points
  5. Croatia – 5 points
  6. Finland – 6 points
  7. Slovenia – 7 points
  8. Czechia – 8 points
  9. Norway – 10 points
  10. Sweden – 12 points

Adding INFE Slovakia’s votes, the updated scoreboard stands as follows:

  1. Sweden – 143 points
  2. Finland – 113 points
  3. Norway – 103 points
  4. Italy – 69 points
  5. France – 68 points
  6. Austria – 56 points
  7. Spain – 48 points
  8. Israel – 45 points
  9. Czechia – 42 points
  10. Moldova – 32 points
  11. United Kingdom – 20 points
  12. Armenia – 19 points
  13. Slovenia – 17 points
  14. Croatia – 12 points
  15. Germany – 10 points
  16. Georgia – 10 points
  17. Cyprus – 9 points
  18. Serbia – 8 points
  19. Greece – 8 points
  20. Switzerland – 7 points
  21. Albania – 7 points
  22. Iceland – 5 points
  23. Romania – 4 points
  24. Latvia – 3 points
  25. Denmark – 2 points
  26. Netherlands – 2 points
  27. Estonia – 2 points
  28. Australia – 2 points
  29. Malta – 1 points
  30. San Marino – 1 points
  31. Portugal – 1 points
  32. Belgium – 1 points

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Source: ESC Today

Slovakia: RTVS might return in Eurovision 2023!

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The Slovakian broadcaster, RTVS, could still decide on a possible return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023.

Slovakia will not make its decision on whether to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 until at least, August. Nevertheless, earlier this week the broadcaster had stated that it would not be competing in next year’s contest.

The decision will not be taken before the election of the new Director-General of RTVS. Eight people are in the running to be the next Director-General of the Slovak broadcaster:

  1. Jaroslav Rezník – Current Director-General of RTVS
  2. Tibor Búza
  3. Ivan Golian
  4. Ľuboš Macha
  5. Daniel Živica
  6. Peter Badač
  7. Vladimir Seman
  8. Peter Janků

The eight candidates are due to meet the Slovak National Council on Monday which will determine the new Head of Slovak radio and television during the next month. Once the new management team has been determined then a decision will be taken on the 2023 broadcasting plans.

Since its debut in 1994, Slovakia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest a total of seven times. Slovakia’s best result was in 1996 when Marcel Palonder finished 18th with the song “Kým nás máš”. The country has a history of withdrawing and returning to the contest. They were relegated from the contest in 1995 and 1997. They then withdrew from the contest entirely between 1999 and 2008, and again from 2013 onwards.

All Slovak entries between 2009 and 2012 failed to progress from the semi-finals. Although it failed to qualify, their 2010 entry “Horehronie” by Kristina is one of the most viewed videos on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.

How would you feel about a possible Slovak return? Write us in the comments below! 

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the ΧΧ participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023!

Source: eurovoix.com

INFE Poll 2022: The results from Slovakia!

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For the sixth consecutive year the second Network of Eurovision Song Contest fans ,the INFE Network, in cooperation with ESCToday, carries out the INFE Poll.

The members of the Network in the 22 local fan clubs, have already voted their favorite songs of Eurovision 2022 and with the help of ESCToday, announce their results.

Today, we have the results from INFE Slovakia:

  • 1 point goes to Malta
  • 2 points go to Finland
  • 3 points go to Spaina
  • 4 points go to Slovenia
  • 5 points go to Italy
  • 6 points go to the Germany
  • 7 points go to Moldova
  • 8 points go to Norway
  • 10 points go to Montenegro
  • 12 points go to… Serbia

This is the first 12 points for Serbia and Konstrakta, while Montenegro receives its first 10 points from their neighbors, Slovakians.

The scoreboard as of now is:

Spain 95
Italy 92
Sweden 85
The Netherlands 67
United Kingdom 54
Ukraine 49
Albania 48
Austria 42
Cyprus 41
Poland 37
Greece 35
Finland 22
France 20
Norway 19
Estonia 19
Portugal 14
Serbia 14
Australia 12
Azerbaijan 7
Czech Republic 7
San Marino 7
Malta 6
Romania 6
Belgium 5
Israel 3
Germany 3
Ireland 2
Croatia 1

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Jon Ola Sand: “We don’t need to broaden our scope of participating countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.”

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On the last episode of Euro Trip, Jon Ola Sand, the ex-Executive Supervisor of Eurovision, talked about the possibility to see a debut of Kossovo or Kazakhstan but also for a returning country to come back any time soon.

At first, in his interview with the host of the show, he mentioned Kazakhstan and if the have chances to debut in Eurovision:

“There is a really keen interest from the broadcaster in Kazakhstan to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. There has never been any serious discussion to bring them in.They are not a member of the EBU, and we really don’t need to broaden our scope of participating countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.”

After that he talked about Kossovo and their chances of a debut, when he mentioned:

“There has been no attempt from the EBU to bring Kosovo into the Eurovision Song Contest. There have been discussions as a broadcaster, but they  lack the status to allow them to compete.“

Australia have been an exception because the country’s public broadcaster SBS has competed in every edition of the competition since owing to its associate EBU membership.

Last but not least, he talked about the possibility to see Luxembourg, Andorra, Slovakia, Monaco or Turkey returning in Eurovision Song Contest:

“We had talks with all the broadcasters you mentioned . It hasn’t been a priority for us to bring them in. There isn’t a need to grow the number of participants. But Turkey would have a higher priority than say, Monaco for instance”

Jon Ola Sand served as Executive Supervisor between 2011 and 2020. Prior to this role he was Executive Producer for Eurovision when the contest was held in Oslo, Norway in 2010.

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