SBS has confirmed that it is no longer pursuing plans to create Eurovision Asia, five years after the contest was first announced.
Speaking to TV Tonight the SBS Commissioning Editor and Australian Head of Delegation, Josh Martin has confirmed that the Australian broadcaster is no longer pursuing the creation of Eurovision Asia.
“I think it’s fair to say we’ve rescinded our rights. We spent a number of years trying to figure out how to do it and then the global pandemic came along.
“It’s very different to the way Eurovision started post-World War Two, as a means of bringing people together. There was a real purpose in establishing it.”
In an interview with ESC Insight in May 2017, Mr Clarke who is the Head of the Eurovision Asia Song Contest, revealed that three cities across Asia were interested in hosting the first contest. The Eurovision Asia Song Contest was expected to take place for the first time in 2018, will be the Asian version of the 61 year-old Eurovision Song Contest.
The three cities that had expressed a serious interest in hosting were:
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
- Sydney, Australia
The following countries have also either confirmed their participation or shown an interest in participating:
- Australia (Confirmed)
- China (Possible Steering Group Member)
- Japan (Possible Steering Group Member)
- South Korea (Possible Steering Group Member)
The contest which was announced in March 2016 was expected to see around 20 countries compete in the Asian spin-off of the 61-year-old Eurovision Song Contest which is held annually in Europe. The contest would be the first time that a Eurovision spin-off has been successfully held outside of Europe.
Mr Martin went on to add that:
“Eurovision Asia is difficult for a number of reasons: timezones, language barriers, all sorts of issues,” Martin continues.
“We tried so hard but that was one that we just could never quite pin down.
“It’s kind of like any TV show. You put a lot of things into development, and not all of them get up. So that was one that we could not, for whatever reason, make work.”
Eurovision Asia is the second time that the EBU has sold the rights to the Eurovision brand for an Asian spin-off and the contest has failed to take place. You can read more about the previous ‘Our Sound – The Asia-Pacific Song Contest’ here.
Plans are underway from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union for the ABU Song Contest, find out more about the contest here.
Image Source: EBU | Source: TV Tonight