Norway: “We can't afford this again!”

by Victor Hondal 388 views

Norwegian host broadcaster NRK has said that should they win the Eurovision Song Contest for a second year running, they would need to talk to the EBU about additional funding before agreeing to host the competition again in 2011.

It had been reported earlier by Aftenposten that NRK had said that they would refuse to host the contest again next year. That was clarified by Hans-Tore Bjerkaas who told the NRK website: "What I said was it's extremely difficult for NRK to organize such a event two years in a row. If that happens, we will sit down with the EBU and negotiate our way to a solution… Should it be appropriate for NRK to arrange a new Eurovision finals next year, you have someone else take the majority of the costs".

NRK's website reports that this year's Eurovision Song Contest has a budget of 211 million where 70 million of this will be covered by ticket revenues and other income.

Eurovision Song Contest executive producer Svante Stockselius stated that NRK can not expect any additional support from them if Norway were to win again this year. Sietse Bakker, Head of Communications and PR for the Eurovision Song Contest commented "Let's wait and see what happens in the final before we start to look at who will host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011".