Talk of Scotland entering the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent participant seems to be more about political capital and PR than reality. esctoday.com has so far spoken to the EBU and the BBC and whilst Scottish broadcasters are free to join the EBU, Scotland would not be able to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest whilst the UK is represented by the BBC and Scotland remains a part of the country.

According to comments from the EBU: "at this time there are no discussions for Scotland to join the Eurovision Song Contest…I very much doubt it will happen at the moment".

The national broadcaster for the United Kingdom is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). That covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The BBC has the contract to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest. It has done so every year since 1957 (except 1958) and there are no plans to drop the event.

Whilst Scottish channels are free to join the EBU, they would be commercial broadcasters, whilst the BBC remains the national broadcaster in control of the UK's Eurovision Song Contest participation.

Furthermore, should a Scottish channel be able to participate, Scottish viewers would in effect have two entries: Scotland and the United Kindgom. They would also be able to vote through the UK for Scotland and vice versa, and that is not possible according to the rules of the competition.

At this time, therefore, esctoday.com believes that Scotland will not enter the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, although we will continue to investigate this story further.