The Spanish broadcaster, TVE, has just issued some statements regarding the non-broadcast of the second Eurovision semifinal, held last night. The public corporation says that the European Broadcasting Union will not take any punishment steps against TVE.

Yesterday, at 21:00 CET, TVE was supposed to air the second semifinal of the 2009 Eurovision. Instead, the broadcaster showed a tennis match of the quarterfinal round of the Madrid Open. The broadcast of the semifinal started at 22:05 CET, in a recorded format.

TVE stated this morning that they chose "the less harmful option possible". Both the airing of the Eurovision Song Contest and the Madrid Tennis Open are regulated by contracts which oblige the broadcaster to show them on a main TV channel, not a theme one. This is why TVE decided to act in that way, the corporation says.

Televisión Española firmly believes that the European Broadcasting Union will not punish them, and goes on saying that "Soraya is currently rehearsing her performance and will participate at the Eurovision Song Contest" on Saturday.