Svante Stockselius explains the new format

Eurovision.tv reports:

Svante STOCKSELIUS, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), gives more details about the revised format. Before the weekend, Eurovision.tv announced that two Semi-Finals will take place to find the Finalists of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

You might ask yourself, when are those two Semi-Finals taking place? "The details are yet to be decided upon, but the proposal is based on the idea that the two Semi-Finals of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest will be aired simultaneously on Thursday, 22nd of May from Belgrade, Serbia. If the two Semi-Finals will both be recorded, whereas only the results will be broadcast live, or if one of the Semi-Finals will be aired live and the other one recorded, is unknown yet," Svante STOCKSELIUS explains.

"Each Semi-Final is only being aired in the countries that are taking part, and only viewers from countries that take part in each respective Semi-Final can vote," he adds. All participating broadcasters can broadcast the Semi-Final(s) they are not taking part in later as well, and the Semi-Finals will be webcasted live through Eurovision.tv. To serve the fans, both Semi-Finals will also be made available on-demand the next day. "To produce the two Semi-Finals live on different nights will result in high extra costs for both the Host Broadcaster and the participating Members," STOCKSELIUS explained.

To qualify for the Final

Another possible change that is currently being considered is that From each Semi-Final, the top-9 ranked countries of the tele-voting qualify for the Final, to be aired live from Belgrade on the 24th of May. In each Semi-Final, the highest ranked country of the back-up juries that it not in the top-9 yet will receive a wildcard to the Final as well. In total, 10 countries per Semi-Final qualify for the Final, bringing the total amount of Finalists to 25. "Usually, the results from the tele-voters and the back-up juries are not very different. However, this procedure, if it should be decided upon, adds extra excitement to the show and gives the back-up jury a more prominent meaning. It is also an answer to the many requests we received to use a mixed tele-voting/jury system," STOCKSELIUS says.

More details about the final decisions of new format and the draw for the running order of each Semi-Final will be revealed later.

source and photo:eurovision.tv