As a result of a revised budget, NPO finally knows how much money it needs to finance Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam — €26.5 million! And because of that, the Dutch broadcasters have once again submitted a letter to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science asking for additional funding.
Eurovision 2020 budget — €26.25 million
Calculations show that the host broadcaster needs an additional sum of money to afford all the planned expenses. This funding deficit amounts to €12.4 million. And host broadcaster NPO strongly feels that the Dutch government should help close this gap.
However, it is not guaranteed that the government will cough up the dosh. Shortly after the Netherlands’ victory in May, Prime Minister Mark Rutte made clear that the government won’t simply throw a bag of money at anyone.
In August, NPO boss Shula Rijxman announced that Eurovision 2020 would need an additional 15 to 20 million euros to cover everything. This plea from Hilversum for help was answered with a lot of negativity in The Hague. Politicians wanted to see an actual budget plan before talking about funding. With the publication of the revised budget, this plan is now there.
As the yearly budget for the public broadcaster is yet to be finalised, the NPO might seize the opportunity to get some more finances. Shortly after the letter had been sent, news broadcaster NOS announced that Minister Arie Slob of Education, Culture and Science will look at the request. The topic of Eurovision 2020 is also on the agenda of the House of Representatives on 25 November.
How much will Eurovision 2020 cost?
The costs of hosting Eurovision in Rotterdam are estimated to be €26.5 million. The EBU has announced that it expects to contribute €9.6 million from fees of the participating broadcasters, sponsorship and ticket sales.
The broadcasters will account for €4.5 million. Umbrella public broadcaster NPO will fork out €2.5 million, while AVROTROS will spend €2 million on the upcoming event. As a result, €12.4 million is still to be found from other sources.
Outside of the Eurovision budget, host city Rotterdam is set to spend €15.5 million on fringe activities, such as city promotion and local events.
Follow all our Eurovision 2020 news here
I think that the cost for the outside events is a bit too much but, i trust dutch people that they would do a show as good as 2019
5. Israel 2019 (Yeah, I was there, so I’m biased. So what? Even with the upward climb for funding and politics and whatnot, Israel seriously rose to the occasion. Great culture/Eurovision balance, the hosts were fine, 90% of the interval acts were outstanding and the remaining 10% wasn’t even Kan’s fault, they introduced a ton of cool features like the simplified language screenings and turned all of Tel Aviv into a Eurovision paradise. Venue was solid, more than people give it credit for.) 4. Portugal 2018 (I know part of the package deal of Eurovision hosting is showing your country… Read more »
Yeah, Sweden makes an excellent Eurovision host.
I’m all in for Petra Mede 3.0, to be honest. Nobody else has come even remotely close to her. But I’ll wait and see what the Dutch will pull off.
Who else do you need, really? Except Mans, I guess.
Enough with this Petra talk… Can we not have something else???… I for one think that Filomena was by far much funnier.
Too sad. But I am sure you will have super hosts.
Man, that is a great account and good ranking. I would swap Norway (my fav, actually), Denmark and Germany in my top 3, followed by both Sweden. Israel far below 5 (maybe at 8 or 9). Shout out to Portugal, as well, but maybe put just below the top 5 mark, at nr. 6.
That equals about 17.5 poor Madonna performances.
Madonna was brought by a private investor and cost 0 dollars to KAN. Plus she was brought not as a well known great live vocallist (which she never was) but as someone to create more hype and talk about. By failing she created even more hype than if she was good. So I think the organisers totally met their goals.
Anyways, RIP Hungary and Montenegro
Just for the heck of it, here’s how I’d rank this decade’s host countries (bearing in mind venue, the actual hosts, incorporating local culture while embracing Eurovision, and smaller things like interval acts). 10. Azerbaijan 2012 (I mean, it LOOKED nice, but it felt like they focused way too much on local stuff versus the contest. Yeah, absolutely celebrate your country, but not to the detriment of everything else. The postcards were basically just “Look at how pretty and historically significant our wonderful country is! You should totally come and visit and give us all your money! And oh yeah,… Read more »
You only started watching after 2017? You must be a quick learner, Joe, as you seem to be very well informed about the entire Eurovision history.
I am a quick learner! When I get interested in a thing, I go all in. Plus I wound up watching older clips before moving into modern-era Eurovision so I wound up with a pretty clear picture of the whole history rather than just the last fifteen or so.
Totally agree on Austria 2015. A strong line-up that produced at least one decent favorite for just about everyone’s taste, but the shows themselves were marred by awful hosts. And I also share your assessment about the Nordics hosting. Denmark, Norway and Sweden (and Finland as well!) are all guaranteed to do a good job. Iceland would probably top all of them, though.
Finland embraced its wackiness, I’d say. Hindered by a mediocre lineup of songs with some big exceptions here and there, but I liked the hosts and the stage design was amazing. That and Serbia the next year probably are my two favorite Eurovision stages, which breaks my heart even more that the songs in 2008 were even worse.
I would LOVE Iceland to host. Reykjavik 2021, baby!
Also, same criteria for other decades: 2000s: 10. 2001 (Almost a tie for the bottom spot, but Denmark edges it out by virtue of the lousy interval acts, overly big venue, and two of the most insufferable hosts ever. The blah song line-up didn’t help.) 9. 2002 (Bad hosts, stage that looked more like a national final. Again, unrelated to the hosting, but also one of the worst song line-ups ever. Good interval act near the end.) 8. 2004 (What on earth was up with the sound? Everything sounded so thin. Hosts were pretty blah too.) 7. 2005 (Strong effort… Read more »
1990s, broadly:
10. 1991
9. 1990
8. 1999
7. 1993
6. 1992
5. 1994
4. 1995
3. 1998
2. 1997
1. 1996
41, guys. Hungary and Montenegro will take a rest this year.
What’s the source?
The Eurovision YouTube channel
I guess it’s six to one, half a dozen the other. Sorry to see Hungary and Montenegro go, happy to see Bulgaria and Ukraine back. All we can hope is that the absences aren’t prolonged and Hungary doesn’t go the way of Slovakia and Montenegro doesn’t go the way of Bosnia (the first comparisons that came to mind).
I f***ing hate my countries broadcaster.
Which country are you from?
Montenegro
I like to see a financially responsible event. After Israel’s splash (with little added value Ma-cough-do-cough-nna) this is refreshing. Oh yeah, btw where are the ones saying that the 20 million Portuguese event was so poor? Not much less than 26,5 million…
Madonna was a disgrace, but not from public money.
OK. Point taken. Nevertheless my comment still stands
Israel had to spend millions more on shipping equipment by air and sea (which is way more exspencive that trucks) and on security. Badically take that away and the budget for 2019 wouldn’t be very different than Portugal or Netherlands
that’s less than half of what azerbaijan spent in 2012
I think the last three contests combined cost less than Azerbaijan’s gig. And they’ve all been better-organized (ok not Kiev but besides that).
Wouldn’t say Tel Aviv was better-organised either… only Lisbon.
Israel managed to balance the twin facets of hosting and celebrating Eurovision alongside showing off their country and culture. Azerbaijan was big on the latter, but not so great on the former. (One underwhelming interval act in a semi-final aside.)
I think Israel managed to celebrate Eurovision because it actually has a long and pretty successful Eurovision history. Azerbaijan just doesn’t have that deep ESC connection yet
Absolutely. Between Kiev, Tel Aviv and Lisbon the choice who had the best organisation is quite obvious. Portugal, of course. But then again the competition was not very big, so that is almost as cheating.
Azerbaijan is in another league, probably with Denmark, countries that built new arenas.
Denmark converted a shipyard, that in the end still looked like an old concrete shipyard from outside. So not exactly building a new arena. What Azerbaijan did is another level of burning public money (#landoffire). Building such a project in such short time increased the spendings drastically, this thing cost them literally hundreds of millions to build in PUBLIC MONEY. This is not something that the EBU should ever encourage. I think that’s why in recent years they reject all the suggestions to cover soccer stadiums or build something entirely for the contest. It is irresponsible, megalomanic and dumb.
Azerbaijan built an entire arena for the contest+ it’s rich with oil money.
They definitely had a good venue. It was just the everything else that was the problem.
(Israel and Ukraine weren’t perfect, sure, but ultimately the venues still looked good, the interval acts with one key exception were good, and Israel had good hosts).
How rich is an average citizen of Azerbaijan? Are the people there rich with oil money?