Moments ago, the EBU confirmed that the changes to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will see the juries return with a 50% share of the voting rights. Televoting will be used to find the other 50% of the votes. The exact details of jury composition will be decided at the reference group meeting this week.

The need to bring back a jury vote as a means of putting an end to what has become seen as obvious political or diaspora voting has been clear for some time. The perception of biased voting has led to a decline in reputation of the Eurovision Song Contest in Western Europe as a fair music competition and led Sir Terry Wogan to resign as the UK commentator after almost four decades of coverage.

In a bid to bring back credibility to the competition voting method, the EBU moved earlier this year to annouce the return of the jury. Since then the reference group have been investigating different voting methods and at last, the final details of how the voting system will work has been announced.

In line with improving the result credibility, the Eurovision Song Contest reference group will determine this week how the juries will be composed and what can be done to avoid dealmaking between participating counties.A spokesman for theEBU told esctoday.com:

"This Wednesday and Thursday, the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest will meet in Moscow to decide upon the exact way the national juries will be composed, and to discuss rules to assure a fair jury vote".

How it will work

• esctoday.com believes that following the performance of the 25 songs in the Eurovision Song Contest final, the televote will take place as usual. At the same time, the jury results will be compiled.
• Each country will then add their 1-12 points for the televote and jury together, to create their national scorecard.
• The highest placed country will receive the '12 points, second placed country will receive the '10 points' and so on.
• Where countries are tied for points, the one with the higher televote position will be given the advantage and the additional point.

The semi finals of the Eurovision Song Contest are unaffected by the change in voting. Once again, the televote will determine the first nine qualifiers from each semi final. The highest placed country on the back-up jury score board that has not already qualified will be awarded the tenth and final qualification spot from each semi inal.