NTU, the Ukrainian national broadcaster has announced that it will be airing a special 2 hour televised debate, Battle of the city, on 20 July where the 6 cities bidding to host Eurovision 2017 will be able to present their respective bids to the special Eurovision 2017  Committee in front of a live audience.

The televised special will be aired live on NTU Channel 1,  Ukraine Radio 1 and will be streamed live  on NTU’s official Youtube channel and Facebook page on Wednesday 20 July at 17:30 CET. Representatives from the bidding cities, members of the special Eurovision 2017 Committee, journalists, music experts and Eurovision fans will partake in the debate.

On 21 July NTU and the special Eurovision 2017 Committee will whittle down the number of potential host cities from 6 to 2. Hereafter NTU, the ESC 2017 Committee and the EBU will inspect and evaluate the 2 finalist cities in the race, thus visiting the potential venues and infrastructure etc.

The 2017 Eurovision host city will be announced during a special press conference on 1 August.

A total of 6 cities have officially submitted their respective bids to host the forthcoming 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine next year.

• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Kharkiv
• Dnipro
• Kherson
• Odessa

The 2017 Eurovision host city bidding race kicked off on 24 June and will conclude on 1 August, it will consist of 4 stages. Cities wishing to officially bid to host the 2017 ESC edition could officially apply until 8 July.

Bidding cities have to comply with the rules and regulations of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest and the requirements to host the event.

The preliminary dates for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest have been set on 9, 11 and 13 May.