Eurovision.tv has just revealed that SBS — the Eurovision broadcaster for Australia — have signed a deal with the European Broadcasting Union to develop and establish a song contest much like Eurovision, but for the Asia-Pacific region.
SBS, in conjunction with their Eurovision production partner, Blink TV, are now exploring options and ideas to allow up to 20 countries to participate in an Asian and Oceanic live grand final.
The inaugural event would take place within Australia as early as 2017, and then continue to be hosted by other countries within the region from then on. The broadcasting rights will be licensed on a global basis to allow countries in the region to showcase their talents in music to the rest of the world.
SBS Managing Director, Michael Ebeid explained to eurovision.tv that:
“As the official broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest for over 30 years, SBS is pleased to explore the opportunity to bring an event of this calibre more closely to our shores, strengthening the multicultural ties in our region. Asia Pacific has a spectacular music culture and the perfect next step to extend the Eurovision brand, bringing its hugely popular appeal beyond Australian audiences and to the wider region.”
The director for Blink TV, Paul Clarke, added:
“Since Moscow 2009, alongside SBS, we have been building Australia’s alliance with the Eurovision Song Contest, a brand that champions diversity, song writers and performers. Blink TV and SBS have been granted an opportunity to grow the Eurovision brand from an audience of 200 million, to a potential Asian audience of more than a billion viewers. I am certain we can build the team for this wonderful opportunity, and we look to partners in our part of the world to join us. Asia has an astonishing set of musical and visual cultures, and it will make for brilliant television.”
Our friends on the other side of the world do already have a non-competitive version of the contest called the ABU TV Song Festival, in which Australian Eurovision 2016 contestant Dami Im participated in back in 2014, but this new competitive concept could bring a whole new element to the world’s largest music competition.
The idea could mean that our friends at Hunan TV in China, for example, may actually get the chance to showcase their music to the world. Such excitement!
Which countries would you like to see at the Asian counterpart of the Eurovision Song Contest? Let us know in the comments below!
@russia forever, feeling a bit more paranoid today? saying that Russia is Asia sounds too harsh for you? ty ne hvylyujsja – Bandera pryde – poryadok navede, i vsi znovu pochnut’ ljubyty pidorashu yak ranishe. vidchepys’ vid mene, laino kacaps’ke. have a good day 🙂
@fikri, I’m not sure if EBU should issue any mandatory transfers from EU league to Asian league. what should be taken in account is countries’ culture and lifestyle. Eurovision is getting faceless as every country tries to please judges. Asian culture and their music is something that can’t be translated into English and shaped in some swedish or greek pop. I would prefer to watch 2 contests, to hear nice jPop instead of dry euro-style. I want someone like FT Island instead of Frans and someone like Kou Shibasaki instead of Lazarev.
something like this 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTg-fE1WNmg
In case you guys have forgotten, this was going on in 2008: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=a_eurovision_song_contest_in_the_middle_east_and_north_africa
…and Putin reaffirmed in 2009: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=the_eurovision_song_contest_format_-_just_what_putin_needs
Not to forget the Latin American Eurovision held for some 30 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTI_Festival
but anyway. I think ideas like these will always pop up in time and let’s see which one stands there the longest 🙂
I love the idea…but then….why would Australia get to be in both Eurivision and the new contest? OR have the two different contests and another with the two combined….genius…. 😀
The Carribeans have a song contest: All 4 One Carribean ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_For_One_Caribbean ).
It’s loosely based off of Eurovision since all the songs are internally selected by each country’s travel & tourism agencies and has been held in ONE country for the past 3 years.
Also, central and south Africa has one. ( http://eurovoix-world.com/africa-all-africa-song-contest/ ) but nothing’s happened yet so… There’s doubt…
If not, BOTSWANA FTW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip2wegzzUxA
Then Australia should leave ESC
So, lets have each continent or region do song contests and the winner of each battle to the DEATH!…i mean….best song!
Great news! Now bring back that Iberoamerican song contest from the 80s that ran for like two decades but nobody watched. It’s so weird, I’ve never heard anyone mention it ever, but my country hosted it twice??
Anyway, I’d watch the hell out of an Asia-Pacific song contest.
Yes, it’s about time. Very glad to hear this! I’ll definitely be watching! Kpop, Jpop. Cantopop, Mandopop…bring it on! 🙂
oxyk
You love so much Russia and Russia people. Why wiwibloggs allow your antirussian comments .
@ eugene “It could well announce the end any hope of Australia having a permanent place in the ESC” Not by a long shot. To me it seems like Australia will be the link between Eurovision and Asiavision, the one country that will participate in both. Which I think was the whole point of Australia participating in the first place. Being the springboard, or bridge if you will, that would allow the EBU to expand and sell its technocratic expertise to the Asian TV market. And of course everybody will be singing in english – the incentive for that in… Read more »
@oxyk: why would EBU get rid of the most succesful country of the 21st century from the competition? that doesn’t make any sense.
Why create yet another geographical divide for Music. They need to be inclusive of all countries worldwide. They need a music competition like the FIFA World Cup, though for every year. The Asia-Pacific, Europe, Americas, and Aficas, have their own competition like Eurovision. Then based on the number of entrants per competition, the top few of each geographical group will compete to win the title of Worldvision e.g. Top 15 of Asia Pacific, top 15 of Europe, and top 10 of Africas, and top 10 of Americas.
AHHH! 😀 i’ve been following the news about asiavision closely since 2012. i thought china hunan tv is going to spearhead the initiative? it’s called abu tv cup song festival, if i’m not mistaken. regardless, good job australia! as a malaysian eurovision fan, i’d love to see what the rest of asia has in store for us. i believe all of asia is nationalistic and none will sing in english which will make it super exciting! my only concern is eurovision is synonymous with lgbt and i don’t think countries with less-than-favourable atittude towards them will embrace it, eg. my… Read more »
Eurovision winner to participate in Acia-Pacific Vision under the name ‘Europe’ 😛
HAWAII 2018 FTW xD
there is already a asia song contest.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABU_Song_Festivals
good idea. everything that is eastern than geographical Europe should go to Australian contest (including Russia – it’s Asian country after all). as others mentioned, there’s Turk contest to cover Turkish music at the same time with ESC (it used not a country contestants but region contestants – Ukraine sent 2 separate entries for example, one for Crimea and one for Gagauz who lives near Moldova), it’s not the same as competition for countries. Russia once got mad at ESC (for gays or something like that and tried to create Intervision contest (2008?) for neighbors – it’s dead since than).… Read more »
Sounds brilliant! Australia really wants to globalize the concept of Eurovision. I’m glad that they’ll be the first country in Asia-Pacific to start it.
As long as that means Australia leaving the Eurovision I’m happy 🙂
https://twitter.com/Schlagerprofil/status/711854783250964480
LOL, maybe Sweden should be invited to join Asiavision as well? Frans is currently no. 1 on Hong Kong Viral 50 😉
I hope that all participating countries use their own language for their songs.
Greetings from Indonesia ????
Wasn’t there talk long ago that EBU sold the rights to USA, to produce their own American Song Contest? This for me feels as if EBU said to SBS you won’t be a permanent member of ESC, so they gave them this instead Seems whenever this idea gets sold it never lasts for long. let’s hope this is a permanent thing. And I would like Australia in the ESC actually. They brought some much needed quality and had a really good song last year. Their participation doesn’t affect other countries, because other countries still choose to participate or not to… Read more »
Why not make an international contest with the winner of the eurovision representing europe, the winner of the asian pacific region representing their region and so on.
I’ve always secretly wanted South Korea and/or Japan to participate because I like Jpop and I love Kpop XD
I’m not expecting North Korea to participate, but I think this is a very good idea. Does it mean we’ll lose Australia as well though?
Turkey = Turkvizyon
Australia = Asia-Pacific-Vision
Thinking of Indonesia to participate.
Hopefully Australia will withdraw from ESC and become the Sweden of this new “Asiavision” contest. I’m not a fan of K-pop, J-pop, etc, so I’m probably not gonna follow this contest, but I might pay attention to the songs sent by Australia and New Zealand, as they have some good music down there. Australia competing in ESC was always a huge ethical thing for me, so many countries have been denied participation in Eurovision because their broadcasters weren’t active EBU members, but then wealthy first-world Australia shows up and is able to break every rule in the book to participate… Read more »
I thought it already existed, but anyway… Does it mean Australia will withdraw from Eurovision and focus on that thing?
Korea and Japan will sure dominate because there are lots of Kpop and Jpop fans across Asia. The Chinese and Filipino diaspora will prevent that, it will be a bloody fight.
I don’t like Asian music. So if it happend, hopefully New Zealand participates so they could refresh the contest that will most probably be filled with k-pop which I HATE A LOT. Worst music genre I’ve ever heard.
I sort of feel upset if that means Australia cant participate in Eurovision. They have brought quality songs. But this Asia/Pacific contest seems interesting so im down
Great concept & growth for Eurovision worldwide, I can already imagine Broadcasters breaking viewerships records. Perhaps we could evan make Eurovision more interesting & diverse, we could have qualifying rounds amongst “Regions”- Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, N & S America ect then have a Semi Final then Final, similar to a World Cup Football pathway.
This sounds great. If this means there’s gonna be Jpop and Kpop I’m already sold. Although the large amount of Kpop fans from all over the Asia/Pacific might give South Korea an insurmountable advantage if that happens… It’ll be interesting to see the requirements for entry, as if it were just being a member of the ABU I don’t know what would happen if Taiwan suddenly wanted to enter but couldn’t as they aren’t a member (and China probably wouldn’t allow it). Plus, Russia is also a member and I don’t think it’s fair to have them an eligible member… Read more »
Basically, Australia is filthy rich XD
This sounds great, I’ve always wanted Asian countries to participate in Eurovision but obviously they can’t (because they don’t qualify to be a participating member). I’m so excited to hear this, it’s been too long overdue! I hope it does go ahead and if so, not occur at the same time as Eurovision, which I’m pretty sure it won’t given Australia loves it and won’t want to miss broadcasting it. Honestly it’s the most surprising news I’ve heard related to the contest and I want it to happen, and maybe countries like Lebanon and Turkey will participate.
I’m from Singapore and I think that’s a wonderful idea to create an Asian version of ESC. Considering Asia has a booming music industry (with so many genres from K-Pop to Mandopop and Indie), it would be exciting to showcase fresh Asian singing talent to the rest of the world. We’ll see how it goes.
So this means, if all goes as planned, we will have two regional Song Contests (discounting Junior) to look forward to in 2017 and forward? The best news ever! And it works for everyone: Those that don’t want China and Australia in the ESC won’t have to deal with it, and those that like influences from other countries will have an entire new song contest to look at.
This is PURE awesome!
@ZanderZion filipino fried!
That is awesome! Great idea!
This is good. If they put it around Autumn time, the winning act can be an interval at Eurovision and vice versa. I also hope the BBC will broadcast it
if it become true then it means another contest to be invaded by The Philippines xoxo
I always thought Australia would end up wanting something like this.
my guess who ever gets wins the asiavision, gets to be the special participant for the 2018 edition of the contest. i can see the junior Esc might go the way of the dodo with vlad leaving (fired) for the organizing committee. so the Oct/nov slot of the EBU calendar might be a filler
i’m just happy australia earn thier ESC slot and not be handed to them because thier super fans
yay! I’m Indonesian and I feel so excited with this!
As much as I appreciate what the Australians have added to the competition recently, a competition within their own region and time zone, just makes more sense. I suppose the audience that will actually put their alarm clocks on a Sunday morning to watch Eurovision, would always remain limited and watching on repeat does not bring the same excitement.
I would watch that! ????
Great job Australia!!!
Ok but what’s gonna happen when Dami wins in May?
I’m soo excited (because I’m Indonesian) 🙂
Great idea!
Australia participating in the EUROvision song contest doesn´t make any sense at all. So they could have their own contest.