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Fewest countries since 2003?
New crisis for the Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest has grown to new strengths in terms of the number of participating countries, viewing figures and commercial success in recent years. It has overcome the challenges of finding a way to include new nations and expand its format to create a fair and open competition. Just months after Alexander Rybak's record breaking win and the biggest commercial success of a Eurovision Song Contest winner for more than three decades, the competition seems to be stumbling into a new crisis.
After overcoming problems concerning neighbourly and diaspora voting, introducing juries and receiving plaudits for what has been described as two of the best finals in memory, the competition now faces a challenge of maintaining the strong position that it has found itself in as broadcasters struggle to find the participation fees and additional finances to fund delegation trips to the competition and national selection processes in the tough economic climate facing almost every European country.
Hungary's withdrawal follows that of the Czech Republic broadcaster, CT, who already announced in July that due to a lack of funding and poor viewing figures, they will not return to the competition next year. Lithuania, Estonia and potentially Latvia are all said to be considering whether to participate due to financial issues. (Read more about Hungary's withdrawal here and the Czech Republic withdrawal here)
Latvia did withdraw in 2009, only to retract its decision after financial restructuring and additional funding could be found. Although LTV have secured a cooperation agreement with Ventsplils City Council, the broadcaster is still lookinf dor additional sponsors to allow a 2010 Eurovision Song Contest bid. With national broadcasters receiving reduced income, they are being forced to cut programming expences, fees and making employee redundancies.
Andorra are also struggling to raise the funds needed to participate. The principality's national broadcaster spend € 140,000 on the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. The final decision will be taken by shareholders in the near future. (Read more about Andorra's possible withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest here).
San Marino participated in 2008 and are desperately keen to return to the competition in 2010 but financial concerns seem to be a major stumbling point to their return. Monaco has also ruled out a return to the competition in 2010 and there seems little likelihood at this stage of either Italy or Luxembourg returning to the Eurovision family fold. (Read more about San Marino's withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest here).
Armenia may decide to boycott the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest after concerns about Azeri broadcaster deliberately blocking the voting number for Armenia on screen have yet to be allayed. An EBU verdict on the investigation was due in Mid September, but no announcement about whether the claims were valid has been given. If proved to be correct, Azerbaijan would face either a fine or ban from the competition. Should one or both countries fail to participate at the Oslo Eurovision Song Contest in May, the number of competiting countries could fall back to just 34. (Read more about the expected EBU ruling on Azerbaijan here).
With fewer countries entering the competition, the cost of participation would increase for all other countries ans the fee is shared out through a specially devised formula based on national GDP and population size. This means that countries seeking to participate based on previous fees may yet find themselves priced out of the competition.
esctoday.com has today asked a series of questions to the EBU regarding the participation fee of the Eurovision Song Contest, the increasing costs that have put off some fans from attending the competition in recent years and what is being done to prevent the loss of more countries from taking part in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo.
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@ Martin and Lina
The deadline for submitting interest is 15th November, as each year, but that pre-list is still not definitive as it was well proved last year. For example, TV of Lithuania has declared that they're going to submit the application but they won't take any final decision until EBU would reply the applications with the fees required for each country.
In the other hand, a country that hasn't submitted interest could have a later meeting with EBU and reconsider it (like Georgia last year). Final list is not completed until the authentic deadline (=later withdrawal implies sanction or ban), that is about January 1st or so.
So, when Eurovision.tv is revamped some days later, it shows the very true list of contestants, just like in 2009.
also Armenia this year says that is going to decide end on December if is going to participate to ESC 2010 
Liechtenstein also wait EBU dececion for full membership and then to aplie for eurovision 2010 middle of December. So December is not very clear month .
@Martin, last year Georgia decide to participate middle of January and final withdraw begining of March, EBU need money so i expect everything from now and on
@Lina
Thank you for your reply but if the deadline for ALL countries wishing to take part falls in November then why should we have to wait until mid-January to have confirmation? It makes no sense whatsoever. Some countries will have already selected their entry by then. As for Armenia, the Reference Group have already met to discuss the whole Azerbaijan debacle and were supposed to have announced their findings already but have yet to do so. I'm sure we will know the bigger picture before 2009 is out. That's all I meant - mid-January is too late to finalise announcements and would be keeping people guessing for too long. Countries will need clarification long before then. So I'm sticking by my hunch that we'll know sooner rather than later.
@Martin i thing @Mario meaning that until the middle of January everything will be clear about which countries withdraw and official confirm participation countries, in wikipedia Armenia is in the confirm list but we dont know yet if that countrey is going to participate beacuse of Azerbaijan issue
@Mario
Actually we don't have to wait until mid-January for the eurovision.tv site to tell us who's taking part. The list of participants so far entering is to be found at http://en.wikipedia.(...)on_Song_Contest_2010 Although a lot of this site's facts are questionable, it is updated regularly as each country confirms their place (now up to 30 including Serbia) and on many instances they have gotten a lot of things right.
Well, we probably won't know the definitive list of participants until the eurovision.tv site will be revamped by mid-January, so we can still expect many surprises (both good and bad ones).
***
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
I don't want to see Armenia boycotting next years Eurovision!! :'(
@Lucky, u got my point
@ Lina !!!
I am Half Czech myself & I know how unpopulary ESC is in Czechia. When I heared, that Slovakia will take Part in 2009, I thought, it could be a Chance to make it popular there. For Example Gipsy.cz sang their Song at Slovakias Euroson Final. & I thik, ČT choose Slovakias Preselection, because there, the Chance to get Points in ESC is the biggest & thet they will finally be not in the Flop2. The other Way, I think Czechias Participation was 1 important Issue, that made Slovakia to return. So yes, Czechias Withdrewing makes a Withdrew of Slovakia in 2011 more possible:-(
from Czech Repuplic and Hungary withdrawing the only looser ( i thing ) is Slovakia. Same happen last year with Andorra when Spain didnt show the semifinal , so if in ESC 2011 Slovakia and Czech Repuplic dont return and if Slovakia take bad result in Oslo do u thing that is going to participate in ESC 2011 ?
I'm just waiting to hear how many more will pull out as the deadline for participation draws ever closer and still quite a few have not committed including France, Spain Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and dare I say it, Ireland. Hope they all decide to take part but somehow I have a feeling it's not gonna happen.
@Dimmis
For a non-ESC fan the guy was spot on I guess 
@Lina
You have a point +1 Lina! You could also put it this way: because of the financial crisis the first thing Hungary loved to cut money on is ESC participation.
@purple cow if the netherlands is the only to left in competition then they gona win USA LOL
@ lina
good point .
now the voting has changed i was hoping to see austria and monaco return
Austria and Monaco withdraw before financial crisis and the reason whas the voting system, some countries now found the cheap excuse of financial crisis to withdraw and especially Hungary, for me Hungary is not standar ESC countrey, since 1995 that countrey withdraw 4 times and Hungary's previous withdrawings has nothing to do with financial crisis, personal every year i m waiting Hungary's withdrawing, i dont trust that countrey in ESC. Czech Repuplic say the truth, they dont want to participate in ESC beacuse of limit people interest and i beleave it and is acceptable.
@Michael UK
In some way you could say that it's a crisis for Eurovision as it is now. Big-big show and stuff.. and countries can't afford it, due to the financial crisis and the costs of the show rising. Double negative.. Armenia threatening to boycott the whole thing because of Azerbaijan.. dramarama. Well I don't know, I think the word crisis is a bit of an exaggeration.
@ purple cow
i read the whole article and i have to say that eurovision survived many many many years with less than 26 countries taking part, so how can this be a crisis now. after all the reasons for withdrawals is mainly financial, and most experts predict an upturn in 2010
@Michael UK
If you would have read the whole article, you'd understand what they mean with crisis... or.. you simply don't see it as a crisis.. that's also a possibility 
how is the withdrawal of hungary and czech rep a crisis??
Molly Parton: I second what you said. I mean, the first two lines. I´ve never been to Norway, so no comment about prices.
OMG:
http://www.telegraaf(...)ival_loopt_leeg__.ht ml?p=35,1
It looks like they translated this article a bit. But they didn't translate it well enough.. because the people reacting, okay it's Telegraaf so the people are right wing low salary no brains complainers (usually), think there's some kind of boycott going on xD. And they clearly haven't watched it the last couple of years. But this is the best reaction: "If the Netherlands is the only participant left, WE WILL WIN!"
Just don't tell me Monaco can't afford it. Hungary, Czech Rep, Latvia and Lithuania have put in some terrible songs lately anyway. Unsurprising no-one watches in the Czech Rep.
Norway is gonna be ballbustingly expensive anyway - ten quid for a beer and five for a coffee and all that malarkey.
It's gotten too expensive, it's ridiculous. They need to down-size their budget. They focus on everything that's wrong anyways. I'd rather have talented and good live singers than a show; expensive dresses and fancy lights. It's a SONG/SONGWRITER'S contest! Screw the shallow folks who care about the show too much and focus on quality of music instead!
Keep JESC! In some ways it's actually better than ESC (language rule etc).
It's depressing that we are losing countries, that's not how it should be.
And Armenia and Azerbaijan need to GROW UP!
@Lina & Martin
Well.. I know a lot of children in Germany that love JESC but still.. they don't participate. Broadcasters have the power to participate and to stop participating, and have you ever heard of children having enough influence to get broadcasters participating in an event like this? I haven't. And in the countries that withdrew.. in the case of Greece it definitely was a lack of interest, but I know that the children in Lithuania and Bulgaria, Spain even.. HATE it that their country withdrew. I don't like it when decisions for a children's show (yes it still is, children are participating and children and teens are watching with their parents) are taken behind their back, just to save a show for adults that can stand strong on its own. Does ESC really need to be saved, I don't think so. ESC will save itself. Or get enough sponsors that are willing to save it. For those countries that can't make it right now.. I'll miss you. well Latvia had problems before the crisis I thought? It might learn ESC a lesson, I loved the show in Moscow.. but that stage was just ridiculously big. I am really sad for all those countries, but it's not their fault. It's how the ESC developed in all those years. I am sure there are other ways to 'save' it, but please don't take away the shows that might be really popular but just not that popular among ESC fans.
All the money 'earned' with JESC goes to Unicef.. so nobody really earns anything. Even in the Dutch preselection for JESC the money goes to Unicef. I know this might sound egoistic from my side, but I do know that I will miss it very much. Friday, the Dutch finalists performed together with one of the biggest musical stars in the country in an award show watched by about 1.5 million people. They will also record a christmas CD together.. and in a few months their CD will definitely go gold or platinum.. just like the previous years.
@ Eurotale
If I will receive all the services that you receive from the state in Norway, I will happily pay all those fees and more!!!
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