Every year, a Press Conference takes place after the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest where the EBU Executive Supervisor gives interesting information on the current contest and announces the preliminary dates for next year. Jon Ola Sand, the current Executive Supervisor announced the preliminary dates for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest which are the 14, 16 and 18th May 2013. He expressed his satisfaction over last night’s show which went smoothly apart from the in-ear issues the Romanian representative faced.

Mr. Sand gave a little information away regarding the results of the first semi-final held last night at the Crystal Hall Arena. Ola said that juries and televoters pretty much agreed on 8/10 qualifiers with one more song going through as a jury favourite and one heavily supported by the public.

Regarding this year’s contest, Mr Sand explained that the televoting window returned to the old format of the 15 minute slot at the end of the show since the previous experiment of extending the voting period throughout the show did not bear fruit.

Something most dedicated eurofans will find interesting is that the EBU project for digital restoration and archiving of all past Eurovision Song Contest shows is now at full speed. Also a special show is in the plans to celebrate the Diamond anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015.

Some interesting figures were also presented today indicating the massive popularity of the contest all over Europe. There has been a significant increase of users on the eurovision.tv webcast. Half a million people follow on Facebook and 50% of trended topics on Twitter regarded the contest.

The EBU seems to be very well aware of the signs of the times and the problems the costly organization poses on broadcasters. Mr Sand explained that smaller, cheaper and more flexible formats with less rehearsal time are being considered to assist future winning broadcasters.