The European Broadcasting Union has just released the details regarding the rules the national juries will stick to at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. The panels will comprise 5 members each, all of them somehow connected to the music industry. Every jury member will be able to give their top-10, a result to be added to the other jurors' rankings. This will make up the national jury result, to be merged with the public televote at a 50%-50% stake.
This major change comes after both broadcasters and Eurovision fans claimed for a fairer and more balanced voting system at the Eurovision Song Contest. With this scenario, the European Broadcasting Union decided to re-introduce the national juries in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since 1997. These are the rules made public by the European Broadcasting Union with regard to the national juries:
- All 42 Juries will comprise 5 members each, including a chairman. All of them must be connected to the music industry in some way. They will judge the performances after the second Dress Rehearsal.
- As usual, TV viewers will be able to cast their votes via phonecall or SMS voting. They will have 15 minutes to decide upon their favourite(s) after all songs have been performed.
- Televote results and jury vote will worth 50% of the final outcome. The merged results will be announced by spokespersons inall participating countriesduring the final.
- National juries' activity will be monitored by an external auditor in every country.
- The jury should consist of a variety of members in terms of age, gender, background.
- All jury members must be citizens of the country they are representing.
- None of the jurors must be connected to any of the participating acts. Otherwise, their vote could be biased.
- The names of the panelists will be revealed before or during the final by the broadcasters.
- The participating broadcasters will submit a letter of compliance with the voting instructions together with signed declarations by each jury member stating that they will vote independently.
- Each member of the jury will make his personal top-10 and will allocate 12, 10, 8-1 points to the selected songs. The 5 lists will be combined to built the national jury result. The song gathering the majority of the votes will be given 12 points, the runner-up, 10, and so on.
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In the event of a tie for any of the above positions, the order of the tying songs shall be clarified by a show of hands by the jury members (abstentions are not allowed).
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The results of the national juries will be published by the EBU’s Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest through www.eurovision.tv.
The result of the juries' deliberation will be merged then with the public's decision. Both jury vote and televote will enjoy a 50%-50% split. EBU’s televoting partner Digame will merge the points given by televoters (1 to 8, 10 and 12) with the points given by the jury (1 to 8, 10 and 12) per individual country. Based on the combined points, the country with the highest points will receive 12 points, the runner-up, 10, and so on. Should there be a tie, the televote results would prevail.
In the moment of announcing the national results to the rest of Europe, points from 1 to 7 will appear automatically on screen. The spokesperson will then reveal 8, 10 and 12 points.
Ruurd Bierman, Chairman of the Reference Group, explained the decision: "We strongly believe in televoting as a way of measuring the opinion of our millions of viewers across Europe. After the public debate about neighbour- and diasporavoting, we decided to give national juries a say in the outcome of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest Final." This statement was supported by Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, who said that “nothing is more democratic than the vote of the public. But a jury takes theopportunity to listen to the songs several times, before they make up their minds. In Belgrade, last year, we saw a difference in judgment of the public and the back-up juries, and we believe a combination will make the show more interesting".
