As eurovisionsongcontest.de reports today, referring to an article in the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick, the national broadcaster SRG SSR is thinking about using the Spanish Operación Triunfo show as their preselection format for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

As in the Netherlands, the talent show Idols is creating fan hysteria und enormous tv ratings recently in Germany, where the show is called Deutschland sucht den Superstar, and also in the neighbour country Switzerland. As the similar format Operación Triunfo worked very well for Spain, the Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR now plans to use it for their national final in 2004. This year, Switzerland cannot participate in the Eurovision Song Contest due to the bad results of their 2002 entry from Francine Jordy.

As an Idols license would be far too expensive for the Swiss broadcaster, SRG SSR is thinking about an altered version of Operación Triunfo, also containing elements of Idols and the austrian Starmania. Toni Wachter, Eurovision spokesperson of SRG SSR confirmed to eurovisionsongcontest.de that negotiations with TVE and Endemol are already on the way.