Money, money, must be funny … but it’s also the driving force behind creating Eurovision each year. And now it’s been revealed that the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 cost organisers a total of €19 million. This is notably less than the originally budgeted €22.7 million.
The Rotterdam City Council government is reportedly “satisfied and enthusiastic” after the increased turnover following hosting Eurovision. The city earned €2.8 million while hosting the contest. Most of this turnover came from hotel bookings.
The city officials noted that this was, however, significantly less than what Rotterdam could have earned when hosting the contest during pre-pandemic or post-pandemic times. While Eurovision 2021 took place in Rotterdam’s Ahoy arena, the city was also experiencing a full lockdown with restaurants, bars, museums and non-essential shops all closed.
Eurovision 2021 cost €3.7 million less than budgeted
The contest in Rotterdam comes as one of the cheapest in recent Eurovision history. Initially budgeted to cost €22.7 million, the show eventually cost €3.7 million less. NOS reports that the cancellations of certain events, including changes brought to several interval acts, made the contest cheaper than initially budgeted.
Organising broadcasters NOS, AVROTROS and NPO, as well as the City of Rotterdam, shared the costs of organising the event. Rotterdam invested €17 million in the eventually cancelled contest of 2020, later adding another investment of €7 million towards Eurovision 2021. NOS, AVROTROS and NPO paid the rest of the bill. Insurance companies covered up most of the losses made over the cancellation of the 2020 event.
In 2019, NPO predicted that the contest in 2020 would cost €26 million. The Tel Aviv contest in 2019 was budgeted at €28 million, while the Lisbon and Kyiv contests were respectively budgeted at €23 million and €21 million, with the latter later receiving a budget increase of €7 million.
What do you make of the figures? Do you think the investment from Dutch broadcasters and Rotterdam was put to good use? Let us know in the comments below!
Well, they didn’t have all the surrounding events such as the Eurovillage, Euroclub etc. Those take a chunk of the budget as well, so I guess that’s why they spent less than intended.
Yeah but also no income of tourism.
Romania has just revealed the 45 semifinalists for Selec?ia Na?ional? 2022 : http://eurovision.tvr.ro/2022/romanian-national-selection-esc-2022-semifinalists-in-alphabetical-order_34686.html
I’m assuming Rotterdam would like to host again in the next 5-20+ years if Netherlands wins again? Unless another Dutch city can provide all the required infustructure? I really wanted to go, but obviously couldn’t.
That’d be great but I’m sure the Netherlands want to showcase other parts of the country to the world if they win the priviledge to host again.
Given how eager Maastricht was in the 2019 bidding process I feel like they’d be the likely next Dutch hosts.
They really need a suitable venue then. Even Arnhem would be a better venue. I am also pretty sure Amsterdam will actually put effort into the bidding phase next time
Minimal input, maximal output. Well done Netherlands!
Ik this is unrelated but apparently Elis Mraz is going to the San Marino nf with the same song. I don’t know if it is true tho. Imagine San Marino getting a better result that Czechia because of that hahaha
Is that even legal? Attend two different national finals with the same song? Where’d you hear that from?
In 2016, Napoli lost out to represent Belarus with “My Universe”. She instead tried her luck in the Polish selection with the same song, but with much stronger competition.
Anyway, I thought San Marino’s NF was just to select the artist but I may be wrong.
EBU doesn’t have any rules about how countries should decide their songs. They’re free to send who ever they want as long as the song is commercially released after september.
I heard it from Eurovision YouTuber ESC SILVER
And in 2009, the Russian representative initially sent her song for the Ukraine selection but didn’t win the selection then sent her song for Russia then represented Russia.
yeah anastasia prikhodko from russia 2009 was initially in the ukrainian selection, then pulled out of it and applied for (and won) the russian one with a slightly different version of the same song
What? UK? You alright bud?
It certainly did not look cheap. Great job Rotterdam!
So. That could never happen in Eastern Europe. Imagine replacing Netherlands for Moldova.
It could happen. But then Moldova’s population would be put on a diet for the next 3 years
We’ll ask Senhit for some money and make her host as compensation.
ESC in Ukraine in 2017 cost $20M
… and the contest looked perfect that way. When you think that Azerbaijan and Russia used to proudly announce they had organized the most expensive contests ever, when all they did is just overspend and waste taxpayers’ money to try to show off. Let this be a lesson: you can host an amazing show without skyrocketing expenses. Good job Netherlands!
That’s one thing you can be sure of in The Netherlands: no boasting about how expensive it all was… if for no other reason than it would be political suicide, because the Dutch hate overspending.
That’s great! Isn’t that just common sense though? I love Eurovision but it’s still just a TV show, I would hate for any government to waste taxpayers money on that.
And Denmark too – DR spent 45 million euro on the contest in 2014, 3 times over budget, even more than Russia
No wonder the quality of DMGP dropped after 2014, they really wanted to make sure they didn’t win haha.
well it didn’t look “cheap” at all, if anything, it was one of the best organized contests in a while.
Cheap ESCs tend to be the best ESCs.
… and to think that the rai has spent 16 million euros to create the Sanremo 2021 festival …
celebrities are hella overpaid here lol
The cost of the general organization, excluding fees to guests, presenters and reimbursements to singers and their entourage, is on average 13 million euros, with the sale of the advertising, Rai had a turnover of 37 million euros.
2021 for 5 evenings: Amadeus 500,000 thousand euros, Fiorello 250,000, Ibrahimovich 200,000.
You have to think that in addition to conducting for 5 evenings, for the rest of the year the sanremo presenter must: organize the festival together with the director of rai1, have the artistic direction to listen to hundreds of songs and choose the songs that will officially participate, sponsor the festival on the various media throughout the year and act as a testimonial for the official sponsors of the festival and must also act as an intermediary with national and international guests. Practically 12 months of work and a lot of effort, 500,000 is not a lot if it… Read more »
🙂
meanwhile the eurovision 2019 hosts got €30k… and average salary in israel is higher than in italy
Italy is an economic powerhouse of the G7, Israel is not.
They didn’t compromise quality in pursuit of cost-saving and I really appreciate that. I hope this will leave a lasting legacy to future hosts too!
Given that Rotterdam lost out on potential revenue due to less people coming into the city to see the contest in Ahoy, and its related tourism, I think it’d be nice for the 3.7 million euros to go to the city, especially with Omicron so that municipal services can have more funding.
Well they didn’t have many events that usually happen like the eurovision village, euroclub and etc’.
But still good for them!
I am sorry, but why is it so expensive?
I mean, take the JESC in comparison and its 5 million EUR, and even if you double that, it is still 10 or more less than these big ones.
Becsuse JESC is a lesser event easier to organise?
Did this guy really compare JESC to ESC…
I did. I don’t understand the downvotes. Even if you x3, it is still 15 mil, again less than what it is needed. And why to overuse technology (bar sound), when the lighting in Paris was much better then in R’dam. With a few lights even.
Apples and oranges.
I have followed Eurovision since 2014, and I definitely think that 2021 was the best edition. 2016 was great too, but I think that this year the contest had much more wider appeal to people that don’t (usually) watch Eurovision.
I always think wide appeal is the best. ESC has for to long been a thing on its own rather than the broad mass appeal show I think it was meant to be. If we want it to stay relevant in a changing time with less regular TV viewing it needs to appeal..
A great Eurovision festival. I actually watched it again last night. Although I have to admit I was disappointed with Chantal Janzen. There was a lot of commentary before the show stressing the value she would bring, but I found her rather average. Edsilia on the other hand was a marvel!
I liked Chantal the most. For me she was best ESC host in 2021.
Nikkie was by far the best host.
Chantal did what she had to do, leading the show and cover up any mistakes (which she did multiple times), As much as I liked Nikkie, I personally don’t think she was needed. Basically Edsilia’s role became very small in favour of her. Chantal was the glue
I think Chantal was more important than people realize, especially to hold together the team of presenters. She was by far the most experienced, and she was the best at dealing with stuff that went wrong… for example, during the rehearsal when it took a long time for Måneskin to take the stage, she led the audience in a chant of ‘In de maneschijn’ (in the moonshine), a Dutch children’s song. None of the other presenters could have even come up with that.
Oh wow, Chantal did that? I wish I could’ve seen that! Anyway, I liked all of the hosts, but, for me, Nikkie always kinda felt out of place somehow. She was kinda separated from the other hosts, or atleast that’s what I think.
Here is that moment where Chantal improvised during the jury show!
https://twitter.com/JelleESC/status/1398252946018734084?t=3ErB_7Ezr7m4NAJ9bLYyyQ&s=19