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Licence fee may go up
NRK estimates cost of Eurovision Song Contest at 24 mill. Euro
Annika Biørnstad, broadcasting director, tells the NRK website that this is still only a very preliminary sum and many more calculations are needed. This sum of 211 mill. kroner (ca. €24 mill.), has been achieved according to NRK project manager Jan Ola Sand with the total cost of the Helsinki edition in 2007 as a starting point. The Norwegian broadcaster is however expecting a higher cost as they will need to host two semi-finals whereas there was only one in Helsinki. Also some public holidays in May will increase the money needed to pay wages and salaries.
After the 2007 contest in Helsinki it was widely reported in Finnish media however that the total budget was €12.4 million and that it was completely covered by sponsorship, ticket sales and a government grant of €4 million.
NRK calculates to get an income of 75 million kroner (ca. €9 mill.) This sum includes the ticket sales and a NOK 30 mill. (€3.5 mill.) grant from the European Broadcasting Union, EBU. The Norwegian government has not yet committed into paying anything towards organising the contest. The government will decide on the 13th of October whether the Norwegian TV licence fee will have to be increased to cover the shortfall in the budget.
The contest will be arranged in May 2010 at the Telenor Arena. The Norwegian based telecoms company Telenor has been announced as a major sponsor for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. No figures are available, but the Norwegian media has speculated it will be a sum of double figure millions of kroner (up to €10 million).
Russia Today website announced in June that the total cost of the Moscow edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 was $40 million (€27 mill.).
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I know Easily Nor, but I can still dream..... For example 1985 in Sweden, what a nice contest that was, with the exciting points, the particpation of the public,.... the good songs and that lovely presenter (for me best presenter ever)...
@ Axel Kearns: Welcome to the 21st Century 
One of the problems this year is the amount of "red" days, as mentioned in the article. Sundays, Ascension, Pentecost (Whitsun). Whit Monday is still a public holiday in Norway. This makes an real increase of the budget.
And read the commet of Keith Timmons below. The NRK has to this partly alone - and with a very small rise of the their public fee, they can handle this.
I suggest escNorway (escNORGE.net) for Norwegian/Oslo-related news.
@ Layla Al-Magnuna
Yes, I soo do agree with you, I cannot believe this government were elected once again 
They just love taxes
I'm sure they can cut the costs down
but i bet they want to spend the money to make the edition special, like every other country has the last few years.
It's so difficult to win the contest, and so it is inevitable that they will spend lots of money when they finally do win.
Interesting Good luck Norway 
Well this is a real eye opener.... maybe it's time for all those little countries to start rethinking their participation. If you can not organise, you should not participate. The cost goes up every year, mainly because of the growing amount of participating countries. And most of these new countries have no means to orginise it.... Call me oldfashioned but I still prefer the good old days, small venues, live orchestra, 20-24 countries, juries, etc....
Norway is one of the few European countries that can assume these costs at this moment.
I think they're unacceptable.
Dear lord, some people still don't get it. It's not the state of Norway that won the Eurovision Song Contest and will host it next year. It is the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK - which so far has not received an øre from the government and possibly won't. If you think every person, every company and every public authority in Norway is dripping with oil money you're sadly mistaken. That money is invested in funds and businesses abroad, probably somewhere in your country.
It's so predictable, they will of course increase so we have to pay extra, that's the usual story. Raise prices on EVERYTHING! People never learn and they're obviously afraid of change.
Wouldnt be that forward Layla, dismissing a huge group of the population as idiots because they dont agree with you politically...
If you think people being afraid of change is the one and only reason they didnt vote like you, you fairly narrow-minded.
lol, it's too much money. The stages were great in the 70s.
Ouch, sorry NRK.
I can't wait until the UK wins this decade. The BBC has an annual budget of over 5 billion euros. And the BBC clearly wants to win the contest and host it too now.
Damn stupid people who voted for this goverment AGAIN!!! It's completely unreasonable to force people to pay a licence fee for this stupid channel, even for people who are NOT interested in watching ESC.
It's so predictable, they will of course increase so we have to pay extra, that's the usual story. Raise prices on EVERYTHING! People never learn and they're obviously afraid of change. *disappointed*
OMG Zohar
Judging by your website, I thought you had a sense of humour. 
Zohar
Its a joke... 
Daniel & Stine
you are behaving ridiculous
You are both saying that Eurovision is some punishment that all countries have to attend (like the army for example), and that when they get there, they do their best to get kicked out (once again, like the army).
Well, if countries don't want eurovision... THEY DON'T HAVE TO GO ! ! !
*Latvia in 2003, 1993 was Millstreet 
Stine
She should probably have been Norway's 11th last place. 
I don't know if the host has ever come last; Sweden did really badly in 1992 and Latvia in 1993. Countries will be scrambling for last place instead of the winning position. OMG, everyone will send bad songs so they won't win, some send bad songs anyway
This budget is absolutely crazy. It is true that the show has become fantastic but on the other side it will difficult to find a country able to dedicate all this money and also participants to pay the fees. Nothing to say if Norway is able to afford the ESC, but sometimes creativity helps to save money.
Daniel
Guri is pure horror...
I just dont want to pay for ESC 2011... 
But who am I kidding though, Norway wont win next year anyway, we will take home our 11th last place.
this article confused me a little... but anyway, that's a lot of €€€€€€€'s
OMG, Stine
I can't believe you have done a complete u-turn on Guri Schancke. 
You will be saying how wonderful she is next
The cost of this contest has become ridiculous. The only way forward is to somehow greatly reduce the cost, or else everyone has to pay even more towards the cost of hosting it every year. Come back Italy, we need your money
This will go over well... Like we dont pay enough as it is in this country.
Oh well, hopefully we will send Guri Schancke again next year, to ensure we wont be hosting again...
@ Alexander
huh? where? and if this is true...i am not surprised and i am not sad.
@Alexander from where u heard it that?
Montenegro just now announced withdrawal from Eurovision 2010. 
This is a really good point, what of one of the really poor nations of Europe wins, how on earth will they be able to host?
I hope the EBU would step in with funds instead of passing the hosting duties to another, richer, country.
(you are all sick of hearing my yack about how re-arranging rehearsal schedual will cut a little the delegation-costs, so i won't go there)
Here is an idea,
Cut that pointless Key-Passing Ceremony, where you have to fly the Moscow mayor and accomodate him in the most expensive city in the world, just so he can say to the Oslo Mayor "here babe, Eurovision is all your's now.
Small saving, but it'start
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