5/19/2008

Anyone who thinks that Eurovision is not ruined by block voting is living in La La Land

When I wrote last year about Eurovision being ruined by the result being predetermined in advance by countries employing block voting tactics should read THIS on the BBC website.

The report says that if you remove the in built bias of countries voting for other countries that speak the same language, there is clear statistical evidence to prove that some countries will always stand a greater chance of winning because they are part of a voting block.

Time for the BBC to pull the plug on Eurovision. The fact that it is an extravaganza of camp-ness is not an excuse and it is an expensive waste of license fee payers money.

7 comments:

Johnny Norfolk said...

Let Sky show it, it is about their standard according to you.

Anonymous said...

`After correcting for language, cultural and religious preferences, they found strong evidence of political voting only among Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Other voting patterns, Dr Vellekoop says, can largely be explained by language preferences and shared cultural tastes.

Cyprus and Greece, for example, are commonly accused of favouring each other and of all the countries, statistics suggest they are the most likely to vote for each other. Wogan seemed to sum it up when Cyprus awarded Greece 12 points in last year's contest. "Over the years people say this is ludicrous, this is ridiculous," he laughed. "But still they do it. They just don't care."

But Dr Vellekopp says his statistical analysis shows the reason the two countries give high marks to each other so often is because their people speak the same language and probably like the same kind of music.`

Obviously you have quoted only one part of the article. It is well known that the BBC have a bias AGAINST the Eurovision due to the fact they don't want the cost of hosting it and also they want to keep that old fossil Terry Wogan in his yearly sinecure dishing the complaints instead of actually LISTENING to the music and commenting on whether the song is good or bad.

If you don't like the genre fine then do something else. The Eurovision itself is hardly a costly expense for the BBC - two live feeds on BBC3 and a live feed on a Saturday.

Having listened to this year's CD for the first time I am struck by the quality of the songs that are so called bloc voting countries. They simply work harder at it and stretch Eurovision taste harder so that something new develops - if they don't do that then they largely produce a footstomper or great ballad.

BTW have you actually listened to any of the music yourself or do you cast yourself like a right-wing moralist wringing their hands at a risque theatre production without even seeing it?

Anonymous said...

"Time for the BBC to pull the plug on Eurovision."

Yep. It is a pointless bag of sh*t. Time to let it die.

Well called Nich.

Anonymous said...

"Time for the BBC to pull the plug on Eurovision."

Yep. It is a pointless bag of sh*t. Time to let it die.

Well called Nich.

Nich Starling said...

Little John - Do you honestly think the total cost to the BBC is three live feeds ?

The BBC is th biggest net contributor to the EBU which funds Eurovision and this is why we get a free entry to the final (along with some other big donors). Put simply, we get in to the final because we pay for the final. It is not simply the cost of three live feeds.

You say its because other countries make more effort. Here's a question then, if Serbian or Estonian music is so good, why does it not top the chart outside of their block countries ?

Nich Starling said...

Oh, and talking of selective quotes John, I notice you did not include this key part of the article

"There are seven countries which are not involved in any kind of vote trading at all: Malta, Monaco, France, Israel, Switzerland, Portugal and Germany. They're at a serious disadvantage and are quite unlikely to win the contest, whereas countries at the centre of the larger blocs - like Serbia, Russia, Sweden and Iceland - have a much higher chance."

Joe Otten said...

Eurovision is an indispensable barometer on the affection each European country feels for its neighbours. By all means listen to the songs if that rocks your boat, but I would be happy to skip straight to the voting.

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