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THE EUROVISION IS shaking up its voting format in a bid to keep viewers watching the yearly extravaganza until the very end.
For the first time this year, the expert juries and televoters from each country will each award a separate set of points from one to eight, 10 and 12.
The top 10 countries in both the jury and audience vote will now receive points, with the respective scores being announced in two separate parts of the show.
The change means the winner will only be known in the final minutes of the contest.
In previous years, the results from each country’s professional jury and viewers have been presented on the night as a combined result, each accounting for 50% of the final score.
The new voting format guarantees that the most popular song among audience voters will receive 12 points regardless of how their country’s expert jury voted.
How will it work?
After the jury points from the 43 participating countries are presented, the audience votes from each country will be combined.
The televoting results will then be announced by the host, starting with the lowest scores and ending with the highest.
The contest’s organisers have described the changes as the biggest since 1975.
They say the new system - inspired by Sweden’s national selection format for the competition - will increase transparency and build viewer suspense.
Martin Österdahl, the executive producer for the 2016 event, said: “In previous years, the winner has been known for up to 20 minutes before the end of voting and that’s not good TV.
This format change will inject a new level of excitement into the finish of the Eurovision.
The three-and-a-half-hour final of this year’s contest is due to take place in Stockholm on 14 May.
Former Westlife star Nicky Byrne will be representing Ireland at the semi-final on 12 May.
Despite holding the record for the most Eurovision victories, Ireland has been on a losing streak since 1996, when we last won the competition.
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€3m is nothing, you couldn’t even pay off the Sligo county manager with that.
I wouldn’t say no to it ;)
So let me get this straight, banks are lending to agriculture and property development, one sector that is inherently inefficient and can get pretty much all of the grants by stamping their foot m, the other landed us in a mahoosive mess, with loans still outstanding to the tune of billions.
Banks aren’t lending to R+D – the one area we know we can do quite well in, because we’re already doing quite well in it.
People still wonder how a) we got into this mess, and b) we are still in it. This country is amazing.
A. Maze. Ing.
I agree that is a bad figure but the reality is Ireland has never been great at R & D. I don’t know where R&D money comes from elsewhere but it is a very risky low return business and I doubt bank loans are the way to go.
I am co-founder of a hi-tech SME. We’ve raised almost €1m from VCs and have contracts of approx €1m with some of the world’s biggest companies ( all exports). The lowest qualification in the company is an M.Sc. We were refused company credit cards until our CEO gave personal guarantees and we now have limits on the cc’s of €140. That’s the banks in Ireland. But glad 2 hear the property developers can get cash. That’s a lovely stable industry.
And people wonder why my company does ALL its banking and lending outside the republic!
Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It’s evident that the banks are hoping for a return to the anomaly that was the property bubble.Try again, it’s not going to happen
3 Mil? How much did “Fingers” walk with ? Remind me again ?
The minister for small firms has small pockets.
Of course, those are the traditional “safe as houses” sectors of the Irish economy. Just think about the qualifications for being a banker in Ireland – have you ever seen such a shower of smug gits?
This blog makes me realize the energy of words and pictures. As always your things are just gorgeous and I am grateful that you let us look in! Keep coming up with ideas.
Small Business Loan
We are a sme with a patent product that we are Bringing to the Irish market .We have been refused credit from the banks as they need personal guarantees so we told them that we have no problem signing personal but we have no assets they still would not give us credit .We went to dublin city enterprises board and got approved for the 10 thousand euro feasibility grant we spent 24 thousand euro and now they have told us we are only getting 5650 euro as we did not employ an out side company to do our market research what a joke spend 24.000 and get 5650 . There is no help for sme in this country it’s a big joke !!!!
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