from escToday:

 

During their second meeting, the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest discussed one of the most important issues on this year's agenda, the voting process of the next contest to be held in Moscow. The Group's decision has now been announced and it is that jury vote will return to the contest for the final only, although the exact split between jury vote and televote is still to be revealed.

A first step towards the reinforcement of the jury vote was made this year when one out of the 10 qualifiers from the semi finals went through based on the vote of local back-up juries. For next year, the EBU takes another step by deciding to introduce a voting model of a mix between televoting and jury vote. The idea is supported by the majority of the broadcasters who answered to the questionnaire sent out by the EBU as well as by a large proportion of the fan base. Further details will be announced in the months to follow.

 

Ruurd Bierman, Chairman of the Reference Group, explains: "We strongly believe in televoting as a way of measuring the opinion of our millions of viewers across Europe. After the public debate about neighbor- and diaspora voting, we decided to give the national juries a say in the outcome of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest."

 

Svante Stockselius, EBU Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest states: "Nothing is more democratic than the vote of the public. But a jury takes the opportunity to listen to the songs several times, before they make up their minds. In Belgrade, 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,"

 

The same format as this year will be retained for the semi finals, with 9 countries qualifying through televoting and one through jury vote. During the next meeting of the Reference Group details, such as the composition of the juries, will be discussed.

 

what does everyone make of this! UK usually do well with the juries so hopefully there's more chance of us finishing anywhere above the bottom five in 2009 :cheer: now all we need is an excellent song!

 

 

Hmm, good decision i guess.

 

The UK will never chose a good song though so it wont really make a difference.

Ahhh this is such good news! It'll be interesting to see how they do it though... I hope they don't do it like in the EDC where the jury votes go on the scoreboard first or anything.

and down with the pro-Russian judges :heehee:

 

Russia will be near the top of the televoting anyway whatever they send :P give the jury points to those in need *cough*the big 4*cough*

Shall we try and get Cyndi back now? :kink:

hurrah! :cheer:

 

Down with televoting!

Let's not get too excited though.

 

It would need to be 40-50% to make much difference and I can't see the split being more than 75/25.

This is the best news I heard all day, thank god :o

Shall we try and get Cyndi back now? :kink:

MYMU 2007 still makes me skin crawl. It's one of those things that will infuriate me greatly until the United Kingdom win the Eurovision again tbh. So it'll no doubt p*** me off for quite some time to come.

This is what the contest needs to gain credibility again with the return of the jury system

 

I personally would make the voting 75% jury, 25% televoting but 40/60 or 50/50 would suit me fine to the ground. I am confident now ESC will head West :D

Really? If the West continues to send such dreck as they commonly have done for the past couple of years, I doubt it...

Portugal deserved better last year, the rest of the west didn't.

Really? If the West continues to send such dreck as they commonly have done for the past couple of years, I doubt it...

 

Let's face it though. "Hold On Be Strong" was not the only decent offering from a western country from the last two years.

Just look at the songs the BJ Eurovision members tip for victory. Rarely are they Western, because we send c**p.

 

If I was on a jury in the 2008 contest, the most Western country I'd have given anything to was Sweden. Juries will make no difference if we still send c**p, because they won't give us any more points than the public.

Just look at the songs the BJ Eurovision members tip for victory. Rarely are they Western, because we send c**p.

 

If I was on a jury in the 2008 contest, the most Western country I'd have given anything to was Sweden. Juries will make no difference if we still send c**p, because they won't give us any more points than the public.

 

Well that just isn't true. San Marino was the only country besides Ireland to give the UK points and they used a back-up jury. Also from the 3-4 back-up jury votes that have been made public, the UK has scored quite highly, as did Sweden. Very little mention of Russia.

Excellent news and great news for the UK and the Netherlands!

Now we might have a chance to be in the top 5 again!

 

http://www.bide-et-musique.com/images/thumb150/2266.jpg

Portugal deserved better last year, the rest of the west didn't.

 

I do agree with this!

Vania Fernandez simply had the BEST song!!!

"Senhora do Mar" was a great fado-song!

If I was on a jury in the 2008 contest, the most Western country I'd have given anything to was Sweden.

 

I'd have only given points to three Western European countries: Portugal, Norway and Iceland. That's how bad the West is (but still not as bad as last year, though).

Let's face it though. "Hold On Be Strong" was not the only decent offering from a western country from the last two years.

 

this is true, although Hold On Be Strong is in my opinion, the best Western song sent to Eurovision in the noughties

It sounds good and it probably is better overall........but just wait until the western Countries all send absolute rubbish and the judges will give them low points and the eastern countries high points and everyone will be shouting "Fix Fix" again. :rolleyes: