Start your engines! Logo TV, the home of Ru Paul’s Drag Race has acquired the rights to broadcast Eurovision 2016 in the United States. The EBU broke the news earlier this morning.
Logo is part of the Viacom Group which also includes MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central. The station will air the grand final live on Saturday 14 May at 15.00 EST. This is the first time that Eurovision will be broadcast in the country. The cable channel is available in nearly 50 million homes, while the show will also be live streamed on LogoTV.com and the LogoTV mobile app — that’s a lot of eyes.
Reacting to the news, Eurovision’s Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand says:
We are thrilled that the world’s biggest entertainment show is being broadcast live in one of the biggest TV markets for the very first time,” said Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand. The Eurovision Song Contest is now a truly global phenomenon and we are extremely happy that U.S viewers now get to join those all over Europe, Australia and Asia in experiencing the Grand Final of world’s longest running annual TV music competition on May 14.
Eurovision 2016 will be shown in all 42 participating nations as well as China, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Portugal. Last year’s contest was watched by almost 200 million people.
“Since the broadcast will be commercial free, they won’t be making money off advertisers so there shouldn’t be a need to just not offer the stream online for free.” Which leads to the question … how ARE they making money? I’m now 92% convinced that this was an infomercial-type purchase by the EBU, to take some of the strain off of their streaming bill. It can’t be cheap to feed that HD YouTube stream to all us American fans. Now Viacom gets to do it. And the contest gets to say they’re on TV in America. (What’s the pressure?) It’s… Read more »
Well THAT’S good news, but I’m still sticking with my VPN plan. Here’s why. (And for once I’m going to get crossposty all up in here, so if you’ve seen me on Reddit, this will be a rerun): A broadcast on American TV will require a conversion to the American framerate, which is going to compromise picture quality somewhat. This is unavoidable, and unless they’re literally relaying the unaltered EBU stream, it will be that way on the live stream as well. And, the time delay by the time it gets from the EBU feed to the LOGO live-stream will… Read more »
IN that case…
HOLY F*** EVERYONE… WE’RE FINALLY GETTIN’ EUROVISION!
YOU ESS EH!
YOU ESS EH!
YOU ESS EH!
*waves flag*
*drinks Budweiser*
*drives out to ranchland to shoot gophers to Eurovision music*
Logo has confirmed the stream is available for everyone! And shockingly their promo is very mainstream. It doesn’t even feature Conchita!
https://twitter.com/LogoTV/status/727142331778916352
@mawnck
https://twitter.com/logotv/status/727304760026628096
First, as Americans we should celebrate Eurovision being shown on American television and not deride it. Second, the contest will also be shown on logo’s website. I have not seen anything that says it will require having access to the channel to watch the stream. When Fox Business aired a Republican debate earlier this year, a network available in 74 million households, they provided a stream on their website without cable/satellite verification required. I’m optimistic that logo will provide the same type of stream. Third, if that is not the case, then those concerned should preemptively contact the network and… Read more »
@mawnck
Close. Main difference is that Florida wins every time because people from Florida are certifiably batcrap insane.
“Which means time for plan B.
STATE-BASED HUNGER GAMES.”
Wait … isn’t that the same thing?
“Mawnck has all the answers and speaks for America.”
No, but I have MANY of the answers about American MEDIA, because that’s where I worked for 30 years.
@Alex – You’re going to need a VPN to do that this year dude. Time to start researching. Have a credit card ready (or else be prepared to throw your privacy out the window).
@Alex
Read the comments, bro:
We can’t do that. They’re gonna geoblock us and give Logo exclusivity.
Yessss. Finally in my country, Eurovision gets broadcasted…
I’ll still be planning to watch on eurovision.tv though because I don’t get cable, and extra commentary isn’t really needed.
Mawnck has all the answers and speaks for America. All the rest of us can nod and say yes, sir. We’re annoying him so much today.
How rude of us.
@mawnck
Okay, fine. You’re right, its just too impractical to do a state-based Eurovision.
Which means time for plan B.
STATE-BASED HUNGER GAMES.;
“Wait, there’s not a single NBC station in Jersey?” Correct. No other major network affiliates either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_New_Jersey ” either let em bid for it” LOL! There won’t be any takers. What’s in it for them? Remember, most are just affiliates – not owned by the network. ” they make auditions in American Idol” MADE auditions. It was cancelled. ” It wouldn’t be all that expensive to put out call-outs for song submissions, filter each pool down to 4-5 participants”” Wait, who’s going to filter? Sounds expensive enough. You *do* have to pay people. I don’t think our OGAE is big… Read more »
@mawnck Wait, there’s not a single NBC station in Jersey? None in Trenton or Atlantic City or whatever? LMAO. Fine, 49 states, and Jersey can leech off New York. They do for pretty much everything else anyways. As far as multiple stations in a state, either let em bid for it, rotate it, or they can work together (and admit it, any forced team up of SF and LA would be a hilarious trainwreck) And you have to remember- they make auditions in American Idol and X-Factor fullscale displays that are turned into episodes of the show. It wouldn’t be… Read more »
“You could do individual stations instead of national broadcasters. Like say, for Washington State, KING-5 TV in Seattle would be in charge of the entire state’s selection. Whereas WNBC-4 in NYC would be in charge of New York’s selection.” Who’s doing New Jersey? New Jersey doesn’t have an NBC station. They all watch either New York or Philadelphia. What about California? They have ELEVEN NBC stations (plus the one in Yuma, AZ, which covers the southeast part of the state). Who gets it? “Forego the station selections completely and just hold auditions” 50 auditions across the country? When Idol and… Read more »
@mawnck
Yup. Kinda irritated- I’ve spent the last month or so getting hyped for this- its been second only to the Stanley Cup playoffs on my leisure time radar… and two week away from the contest they decide that 60% of America are THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD who don’t get a chance to watch this.
Thanks EBU. Thanks a fuggin TON.
@mawnck You forgot CSPAN, which is neither taxpayer funded or commercial. As far as not making “Americavision” work, I don’t see why it couldn’t. Let’s say NBC/Universal has the rights to it. They have two options 1. You could do individual stations instead of national broadcasters. Like say, for Washington State, KING-5 TV in Seattle would be in charge of the entire state’s selection. Whereas WNBC-4 in NYC would be in charge of New York’s selection. 2. Forego the station selections completely and just hold auditions and pick the fifty best entrants one from each state. yes, it’d be different… Read more »
“Confirmation that YouTube stream will be geoblocked in the US:”
Well, that’s it. Say b’bye to America.
“PBS’s budget has been slashed by conservative S in Congress who want to terminate the network.” When supporting your argument, please be careful that you aren’t making stuff up that “sounds right”. Congress has done no such thing. If they have, I’m sure you can find a link. “Do you know anyone under the age of 50 who watches anything on PBS?” PBS’s under-50 viewership is many times the TOTAL viewership of LOGO. “50 states. 50 songs. If the EBU can give Asia permission to do their own, why not give the USA the right to run itself.” About 15… Read more »
Confirmation that YouTube stream will be geoblocked in the US:
https://twitter.com/eurovisionpress/status/727207182740164608
@Jai As another American who loves Eurovision, I can say that I am thoroughly disgusted by the enter-key-bereft wordwall off mental diarrhea you have managed to splatter all over this comment thread. First- its clear you did not read the concerns of those unhappy its on Logo- namely that this probably means the live feed WONT be availible, as it will probably be blocked so that the broadcaster (aka LOGO TV) can have exclusive rights- thus rendering many people incapable of watching the contest. If we are wrong on this, and the contest will be streamed as usual, its a… Read more »
As an American who loves Eurovision I’m glad the contest is being broadcast on Logo. If you don’t get Logo stop whining and just watch the live feed on the Eurovision website, that’s what I do every year. For those mad that’s its on a gay station, guess what Eurovision’s pretty gay. It was won by a trans woman in 1998, a lesbian in 2007, and a drag queen in 2014, and that’s just a few of the many LGBT acts who have competed in the last 61 years. The contest has a huge gay following and a lot of… Read more »
Oh lawd. Jessie Smollett or RuPaul doing the commentary. Lol
If Eurovision isn’t gay enough, . .
@mawnck
Do you know anyone under the age of 50 who watches anything on PBS?
Besides Sesame Street.
I agree that more people have access to PBS, but my point here is that it’s on nobody’s radar.
“The problem with PBS is that it’s actually a fragmented collection of publicly funded stations in cities across the US, none of which get a large audience.” They get an audience MANY TIMES the size of LOGO’s. Remember we’re talking literally hundreds of stations here. I agree with most of @Pollaski’s concerns, BTW. If this means that folks who can’t get LOGO have to VPN to see the Contest, and that it gets introduced to America as a thing that only LGBT folks care about (which perfectly describes LOGO), then this is a HUGE step backwards. One thing that does… Read more »
@Pollaski
You’re so right – Bravo would be a great fit. And Joel McHale would be brilliant at this. Almost like an American Terry Wogan (for better and worse).
Let’s start lobbying for this.
“I remember some people say that ESC alo broadcast in US via TVE Internacional”
Foreign channels are available to satellite subscribers who wish to pay extra for them – but that doesn’t count as “broadcast in the USA”.
@Denis I agree, it’s unfortunate that it’s going to such a niche channel, but it might help to crack open the door a little bit. The problem with PBS is that it’s actually a fragmented collection of publicly funded stations in cities across the US, none of which get a large audience. They all do their own programming, and if PBS purchased the rights to Eurovision, each station could opt to show it if and at whatever time slot they wanted to. It’s pretty chaotic, and most of the shows on PBS are “for old people” – shows like Antique… Read more »
The more I think about it, the more I hate it. First of all, the idea of promoting Eurovision as an LGBT event is beyond stupid, as you’re right off the bat telling the world that this will only appeal to a minority of the population. Furthermore, I would think the idea that everything that was campy has to be gay, and everything that was gay has to be campy would be an utterly revolting line of thinking. So right off the bat- putting it on a channel that most Americans dont care about because it shoots for such an… Read more »
Logo is a specialty channel though…hope YouTube will host a live broadcast again.
I remember some people say that ESC alo broadcast in US via TVE Internacional
One correction: It’s the first time the Contest will be broadcast LIVE in the USA, but not the first time it’s been broadcast. The 1971 Contest was broadcast on PBS via tape delay. (Why couldn’t it have been an INTERESTING year?) Don’t expect this to be a big ratings getter. Logo is a pretty obscure cable channel. Many households (including mine) can’t get it. And many that do don’t realize it. It’s very much a niche channel for LGBT viewers. I don’t understand why we’re hearing about this only now, with less than two weeks until the broadcast. How much… Read more »
Why such a niche channel though? Why not a more serious channel such as PBS for instance? There is a risk of becoming camp, and people thinking it’s camp. RuPaul is on the channel even..
And don’t worry Europrotectors, there is no way USA would be invited. Most still have no clue to what it is and view it as a oddity. This step won’t do anything to help that attitude,it will never be a big thing over there.
So your precious European identity is safe.
It’s a nice step in the right direction, but Eurovision will never be very big in the US. There’s just no tradition for it, so it’s seen as another oddity from Europe. I can’t overstate how condescending most Americans are about anything European – it’s completely ignorant, but it’s very real. And depending on where in the US you live, the show starts at noon to 3:00 pm, which on a Saturday is when most people are mowing the lawn, picking up the groceries, or watching their kids’ soccer games. Whoever thinks the USA will ever participate in Eurovision is… Read more »
@Oxyk – you’re right. Channel-1, from Russia always does it and there are no restrictions. Also, I think that the ARD from Germany has the same.
Plus, you can check also stations from Ukraine (as mentioned), TVSH (Albania).
Either way, it will be available on the official YouTube channel of Eurovision, free for all, plus on the eurovision.tv
Sadly I don’t even have cable, but this is still great news!! I usually watch it through the Eurovision Site or SVT anyway.
@fikri
not so much, Logo TV is not available in basic channel packages
Could they stop Eurovision looking like a complete gay fest(nothing against the lgbt community) but the rest of us are not represented
@JL,
if you’ll have issues to find live stream, you can try our East European broadcasters to watch the sow. I know for sure that our Ukrainian broadcaster STB and UA:pershyi will translate the show on Youtube or their sites (without any restrictions). The only drawback would be the commentator language. Russian broadcaster also will have free stream on their site for Russia1 channel.
I’m thrilled that we will have Eurovision in the United States. Finally!
Unfortunately, I am NOT thrilled about the fact that it will be on Logo TV. The channel may be available to 50 million, but it’s really not that popular a channel. Aside from RuPaul’s drag race, the only other things anyone watches on that station are Golden Girls re-runs.
Hopefully, it will be moved to MTV, which does a bit better than Logos TV. Albeit, MTV’s “golden age” is long gone.
damn, the ratings for this year is going to be off the roof!
Haven’t the US broadcasted JESC for some years ago?
ugh, I’m not special anymore
(the embassy of the host country in DC used to be one of the only places in the US where you could watch it on multiple TV screens live)
Just change the name in eurovision gay song contest please so evreybody send an gay artist to have more chance to win
Ladies and gents, the ESC is finally being accepted as the prime gay TV show of the year…and gay parade.
Who thought that this piece of a TV show will end up being labeled gay and for a reason.
Oh, where are the good old times where this was a song contest, free from labels?
Fantastic!
Great. Go RuPaul
Heh, kind of funny how the contest is on OutTV in Canada, and now Logo in the US. Although if it gets a high amount of viewers this year, we might be able to bet on seeing it on MTV in 2017.
Next year we wili have USA in contest as guest like Australia in 2015 and after that Eurovision is dead.
@JL, I don’t think they would block YouTube. Are you trying to stream via Chromecast? You can also use the Chrome browser to stream to Chromecast, although it would probably be choppy.