According to OGAE Germany, a long discussion about the new Eurovision Song Contest format has been made in the Reference Group.
It is claimed that some countries are very disappointed because of the way other countries voted. Especially Austria, Switzerland and Estonia are very sensible when it comes to the voting topic.
Furthermore, the Reference Group also discussed the possibility to make a more
interesting mixture of nationalities as some members think this year's contest was very Balcan-focussed. Thus, during the next meeting in Kiev they will prepare new plans and ideas. Notwithstanding, it seems to be open the possibility of having two semi finals and one final.
Moreover, what is also interesting is the information how many people have voted in several countries. In other words, in the semi final there were only 259 calls from Albania, 5524 from Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine only 3815 votes, but 92.305 from Switzerland!
On the other hand, the Reference group is also concerned that the interest in the Big Four countries (UK, Germany, Spain and France) was very low in the semi final as they didn't take part in it. In fact, only 39.005 people voted in Spain, but more than a million in Germany, which is probably the reason why Germany is one of the biggest supporters of televoting.
In addition to discussing all these issues, the Reference group will sign a contract in order to assure the Ukrainian organization of the Eurovision Song Contest as the public elections in Ukraine could be a risk for it. Although the Reference Group is concerned about some infrastructural issues, the Ukrainian governement and NTU promised everything will be okay.
It seems that a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place on 16th October under the production of BBC.
