The first details of the selection process for the United Kingdom have been given to esctoday.com. It very much follows the formula used this year by the BBC for the first time, following on from the disastrous result of 2003. Making Your Mind Up will return in 2005, in a prime time Saturday evening slot.

Once again as in previous years the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters has some involvement with the selection process. Although not all of the entries are in yet, the number is up on that for 2004. However it is possible that only one song will be forwarded to the final from this part of the selection process.

However the number of songs in the final has still to be decided, in 2004 six songs participated in the televised final, and prior to this since 1996 only four songs had made the final selection. The final will follow the same pattern as last years' hit show Making Your Mind Up in that it will take place on a Saturday evening on BBC1. There will be no pre-voting on Radio 2, which had been a regular feature from 1996 up until 2003. There will however be a number of special performances, from around the end of February or early March to transmit, but the BBC don't want to reveal details of these just yet!

All the details regarding song titles, composers and artists are expected to be announced in early January, along with details of the presenters for Making Your Mind Up

The BBC in common with all other participants in 2005 is obliged to broadcast the qualifying round on May 19th. This will once again be on the digital channel BBC3, as it is felt that to broadcast it on either BBC1 or BBC2 would detract from the final on May 21st, for the majority of the audience, which was 4% up this year on the 2003 figure, and has increased by 10% since 2000!

There will however be a number of additional related Eurovision shows around the event and across the BBC channels in May, such as there was this year with Eurovision On Location and Eurovision…A Little Bit More. In addition to comprehensive web coverage and interactive services.

The United Kingdom as one of the big four countries, qualifies automatically for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 on 21st May.